Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County School Board Meeting, Thursday, November 13, 2025

Date: Thursday, November 13, 2025
Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia
Length: 4h 20m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6a1_6WkmZs
Official School Board page (FCPS): https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/leadership/school-board

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-29. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:01:01] The time is now 7:11 p.m. And this November 13th, 2025 regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will now come to order. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by a moment of silence and a performance of the national anthem by Lydia Rotkus, a West Potomac High School student soloist.

[00:01:25] - I pledge allegiance to the flag.

[00:03:39] - Can we give one more round of applause for our amazing students? And item 4.02 announcements. If you would like a copy of the meeting agenda, Please see the back of the auditorium to obtain copies of any items or supporting materials being presented tonight.

[00:03:58] Please reference the QR code on the agenda or visit www.fcps.edu backslash board docs. Tonight's meeting is being broadcast on Channel 99 and live streamed on YouTube and our website at www.fcps.edu backslash live stream.

[00:04:17] Tonight's meeting is also being broadcast in Spanish on YouTube at youtube.com at FCPS en Espanol. Agenda item 4.03, Veterans Day Proclamation. I call on Ms. Marin for a proclamation.

[00:04:36] Whereas Veterans Day, observed annually on November 11th in the United States, is a time to honor and recognize the selfless service and sacrifices of all those past, present, and who served with the U.S. Armed Forces to defend the freedoms and rights that are so important to our nation's democracy.

[00:04:53] And whereas Veterans Day, formerly known as Armstice Day, is the anniversary of the signing of the Armstice by the Allies and Germans in 1918 ending World War I. Armstice Day officially received its name in the United States in 1926 and became an official national holiday in 1938 through congressional resolutions.

[00:05:14] In 1954, President Eisenhower signed a congressional bill that changed the holiday's name to Veterans Day. And whereas Americans owe a great debt to the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines who serve and defend our freedom in war and peace, and their families and communities that support them.

[00:05:32] And whereas Fairfax County Public Schools has strong ties to our veterans, as our division proudly employs many veterans who now serve as teachers, administrators, and support staff in our schools and division departments. Also, Fairfax County Public Schools serves over 14,000 military-connected students and their families.

[00:05:51] And whereas Fairfax County Public Schools acknowledges the profound impact that military service has, not only on those who serve, but also on their families, particularly the children of service members who often face unique challenges due to the demands placed on military families, including frequent relocations and deployments.

[00:06:09] And whereas Fairfax County Public Schools is committed to providing military-connected students with the best possible education and an inclusive and supportive educational environment that fosters stability and community. Fairfax County Public Schools seeks to earn the Purple Star School designation for every one of our schools as a symbol of that commitment.

[00:06:29] Now therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board does hereby proclaim November 11, 2025 as Veterans Day. We urge all students, employees, and community members to join in appropriate activities to pay tribute to the members of our military and stress the importance of service to our country as a core value in our democracy therefore be it further resolved that Fairfax County School Board reaffirms our commitment that military connected students and their families are welcome supported and valued in our schools is there a second second thank you Mr. Frisch I will call on a vote for all those in favor Mr. Frisch Miss Marin Mr. McElveen Miss St. John

[00:07:08] Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself. That's unanimous for all board members present. Agenda item 4.04, School Psychologists Appreciation Month Proclamation. I call on Mr. Moon for a proclamation. Thank you, Madam Chair. We are as National School Psychologist Month is recognized annually in November to celebrate and honor the dedicated professional services staff in elementary, middle, and high schools who ensure

[00:07:48] de-mentor and emotional health needs of our students are met both in and out of school and whereas school psychologists bring a unique combination of training in both psychology and education enabling them to collaborate with teachers administrators families and other professionals in order to create safe nurturing inclusive and supportive learning environments for all children and whereas school psychologists are key members of the school team who assess individual strengths against your student and school-based barriers to learning and apply their expertise and training in mental health learning and

[00:08:28] behavior and research driven prevention and intervention strategies to help students develop and nurture the social emotional and life skills necessary to achieve personal growth build resilience and foster a sense of belonging and whereas the National Association of School Psychologists has designated to see a theme as finding your path to spotlight the many ways school psychologists help students, families, and school communities chart, navigate, and achieve their individual and collective goals. And whereas through evidence-based

[00:09:06] practice, data-driven decision-making, preventative and responsive interventions, consultation and collaboration, and culturally responsive support, school psychologists strengthen student learning promote mentor and behavioral rural health address barriers to success and champion equity access and positive school climates and whereas Fairfax County Public Schools believes that the mental health emotional well-being academic readiness social competence and behavioral success of all students are fundamental to vibrant schools and

[00:09:43] thriving communities and whereas in our Fairfax County Public Schools community school psychologists play a critical role in promoting student engagement and success facilitating transition planning supporting positive behavior and social emotional growth assisting with a crisis prevention and intervention partnering with the families and stakeholders and advancing inclusive practices to help students thrive academically socially and emotionally

[00:10:14] Now therefore be resolved to that Fairbanks County School Board recognizes November 2025 as the school psychologist appreciation month and expresses its highest commendation and deep gratitude for critical role these professionals play in supporting our students emotional social and mental well being.

[00:10:36] Is there a second second. Thank you Mr. Dunn I will call on a for a vote all those in favor. Ms. Frisch, Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Ms. Seismar-Hyser, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself. That's unanimous for all board members.

[00:11:04] Agenda Item 4.05, Celebrating National Family Engagement Month Proclamation. I call on Ms. St. John Cunning for a proclamation. Thank you. I'm proud to present this proclamation and what I hope will be an annual proclamation. but for the first time, whereas Fairfax County Public Schools recognizes that strong partnerships among families, schools, and communities are essential to student success and to the well-being of every child, and whereas November is National Family Engagement Month, a time to celebrate and recognize families as a child's first and most important teacher and partner in learning,

[00:11:43] with over 35 years of research confirming that active family involvement is the most effective way to increase student achievement. And whereas professionals in every school and our departments of community relations, multilingual learner services, and Title I provide a variety of family engagement opportunities on a daily basis in our division. And whereas the FCPS Family and School partnership office includes over 300 family engagement operational staff including 200 dedicated family liaisons family engagement region representatives family resource center staff

[00:12:22] community liaisons home instruction for parents of preschool youngsters otherwise known as hippie early literacy two parent two homes military family support families reunite cultural liaisons and family information phone line professionals who work tirelessly to support all families in fcps and ensure their academic success and whereas family engagement staff serve as trusted connectors and advocates helping families navigate the school system access school and community

[00:12:58] resources and to engage meaningfully in their children's education and whereas family engagement staff embody the values of equity inclusion and empathy ensuring that every family regardless of background language or circumstance feels welcomed informed and empowered and through their dedication dedicated dedication professionalism and compassion strengthen communication between home and school promote cultural understanding and nurture a sense of belonging that supports academic and social-emotional growth. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax

[00:13:38] County School Board expresses its deep gratitude to professionals in our schools, Department of Community Relations, Multilingual Learner Services, Title I, and Family and School Partnership, central office staff, and school-based family liaisons for their contributions, which exemplify the spirit of service and community that defines Fairfax County.

[00:14:02] there a second? I second. Thank you, Ms. Dixit. I will call for the vote. All those in favor, Mr. Fresh, Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Ms. Sizemore-Hyzer, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself. That is unanimous for all board members present.

[00:14:20] I would like to welcome all of those here in support of celebrating National Family Engagement Month proclamation to please join the board for a photo at the front of the dais. That includes

[00:14:35] teachers because you engage our students and families every day. I would like to

[00:16:50] welcome our school psychologists and all those here in support of the school psychologists appreciation month proclamation to please join the board for

[00:16:57] a photo at the front of the dais. I would like to welcome our veterans and

[00:18:14] all those here in support of the Veterans Day proclamation to please

[00:18:17] join the board for a photo at the front of the dais. Madam Chair that was our

[00:20:07] last picture for this portion. Agenda item 4.06 Purple Star Schools

[00:21:00] recognition. I call on Mr. Dunn for the recognition. Virginia is home to over 77,000 military-connected school-age students, more than any other state in the nation.

[00:21:22] All of our Fairfax County public schools proudly welcome and support the over 12,700 military-connected youth and their families who are part of our school community. In 2018, the Virginia Department of Education established the Purple Star designation to be awarded to military-friendly schools that have demonstrated a major commitment to students and families connected to our nation's military criteria established for the award were designed to increase educator awareness of military connected youth and help schools structure their support to and for military connected youth and their families when a school

[00:22:00] achieves a purple star designation it is valid for three years after this period schools who successfully reapply and meet the current program requirements achieve a consecutive designation. In the inaugural year, 14 Fairfax County public schools received the Purple Star recognition.

[00:22:18] FCPS now boasts 145 Purple Star schools, nearly 75% of our division schools. Tonight, we are honoring 89 of our schools who have been awarded the Purple Star designation for the 2025-2026 school year. The Purple Star School Award serves to set each of these schools apart for the hard work of faculty, students, parents and community partners who stand together to ensure that our military connected students are supported academically, behaviorally and emotionally during their transitions. We

[00:22:55] thank the FCPS school staff and students from these 89 schools earning the recognition this year for the warm welcome to their military connected students and we thank our military families for keeping our nation strong and safe. Schools that earned this prestigious designation received a special Purple Star recognition to display at their school. I recognize our 49 schools who have achieved their final their first Purple Star School Award.

[00:23:23] These schools are now displayed on the screen and I invite students, families, staff and community members in the audience to stand in support of their

[00:23:33] school. Dan, in support of your schools. Oh, that's impressive. We will now recognize schools who have

[00:24:09] received a consecutive Purple Star School designation. These consecutive designations are in recognition of these schools' impressive ongoing commitment to welcoming military-connected students and families. I recognize the 16 schools who have achieved their second Purple Star School designation. These schools are now displayed on the screen and I invite students, families, staff, and community members in the audience to stand in

[00:24:38] support of their school. I recognize the 24 schools who have achieved their third purple star school designation. These schools are now displayed on the screen and I invite students, families, staff, and community members in the audience to stand in support of their school.

[00:25:16] Congratulations to our outstanding 20-25-26 Purple Star Schools.

[00:25:38] We would like to recognize our Purple Star Schools' points of contact, staff, families, administrators, and the principals for their dedicated efforts to support military-connected students and their families. At this time, I would like to recognize the Fort Belvoir Garrison Commander, Colonel David J. Stewart, who was unfortunately unable to join us this evening.

[00:26:00] We would also like to recognize members of the Fairfax County Public Schools Military Connected Youth Process Action Team. This team's charge is to identify unique academic, behavioral, and social-emotional needs of military-connected youth and their families, and ensure faculty and staff are informed and prepared to meet the identified needs, partnering with stakeholders as appropriate.

[00:26:23] At this time, I would like to ask my colleagues, Colonel Stewart, School Board Representative Maconan, our Superintendent Dr. Reed, and our Chief of Schools Dr. Ponce, members of the Military Connected Youth Process Action Team, and Fort Belvoir School Liaison Officers Marie Bailey and Angela Beebe to make their way to the dais to recognize these schools and be a part of the group photos. Madam Clerk, please call up each school by region to join us at the dais with their regional leadership staff to receive their recognition and take a group photo.

[00:26:59] Okay, we are starting with Region 1. So Region 1 school names starting with A through F. Those schools are Aldrin Elementary School, Churchill Road Elementary School, Clearview Elementary School, Colvin Run Elementary School, Cunningham Park Elementary School, Dogwood

[00:27:14] Elementary School, and Forestville Elementary School.

[00:28:03] Now we ask for Region 1 school names starting with H through L, Herndon High School, Herndon Middle School, Hughes Middle School, Hunter Woods Elementary

[00:28:41] school lake and elementary school langley high school marshall road elementary school and mosaic

[00:28:45] elementary school region one school names starting with n through z navy elementary school oakton

[00:29:50] elementary school rachel carson middle school south lakes high school sunrise valley elementary

[00:29:55] school wolf trap elementary school region two school names starting with a through f bailey's

[00:30:59] elementary school beech tree elementary school camelot elementary school fairhill elementary

[00:31:03] school falls church high school franklin sherman elementary school region two schools name starting

[00:31:59] with G through Z, Graham Road Elementary School, Kent Gardens Elementary School, Longfellow Middle School, Mason Crest Elementary School, Parklawn Elementary School, and Westlawn Elementary School.

[00:32:25] Region 3, school names starting with A through M, Groverton Elementary School, Edison High School, Fort Hutt Elementary School, Franconia Elementary School, Mark Twain Middle School, Mount Vernon

[00:32:59] High School, Mount Vernon Woods Elementary School. Region 3, school names starting with N through Z,

[00:33:51] Sandburg Middle School, Stratford Landing Elementary School, Washington Mills Elementary School, West Potomac High School, Whitman Middle School, Woodlawn Elementary School, and Woodley

[00:34:00] Hills Elementary School. Region 4 school names starting with A through L, Cardinal Forest

[00:34:55] Elementary School, Center Ridge Elementary School, Colin Powell Elementary School, Bull Run Elementary School, Kings Glen Elementary School, Laurel Hill Elementary School, Laurel Ridge Elementary School.

[00:35:54] Region 4 school names starting with M through Z, Orange Hunt Elementary School, Robinson Secondary

[00:36:48] School, Silverbrook Elementary School, Terra Center Elementary School, Irving

[00:36:52] Middle School, West Springfield High School. Region 5 school names starting

[00:38:18] with A through F, Brookfield Elementary School, Cub Run Elementary School, Eagle View Elementary School, Fairfax Villa Elementary School, Freedom Hill Elementary

[00:38:26] School, Frost Middle School. Region 5 school names starting with G through M,

[00:39:26] Greenbrier East Elementary School, Greenbrier West Elementary School,

[00:39:31] Lees Corner Elementary School, and Mantua Elementary School. Region 5

[00:40:41] school names starting with N through Z. Oak Hill Elementary School, Rocky Run Middle School, Stenwood Elementary School, Virginia Run Elementary School, and

[00:40:49] Woodson High School. Fairfax County Adult High School and Region 6, school names

[00:41:44] starting with A through H. So we have Annandale High School, Braddock Elementary School, Crestwood Elementary School, Garfield Elementary School, Gunston Elementary School, Hayfield Elementary School, and Hayfield Secondary School.

[00:41:56] Region 6 school name starting with K through Z, Key Center, Key Middle School, Lane Elementary School, North Springfield Elementary School, Saratoga Elementary School, and Springfield Estates Elementary School.

[00:43:37] Madam Chair, that concludes our Purple Star Schools recognition portion of the program.

[00:44:41] Agenda Item 5.01, Community Participation. The next order of business is community participation.

[00:45:18] We welcome all community members who are here and those who have signed up to speak this evening. additional information about signing up to provide comments at School Board regular business meetings and public hearings can be found on the School Board website at www.fcps.edu/schoolboard. During the signup process, community members acknowledged that they were informed of the School Board's expectations for respect and proper decorum when providing comments. These expectations are also available online and with the printed agenda and meeting materials in the back of the room.

[00:45:52] We ask audience members to be respectful of one another. Shouting and outbursts will not be tolerated. Please hold your applause until the conclusion of a speaker's remarks. Audience members may not join speakers at the podium and should remain at their seats including when recording video or taking photos.

[00:46:09] We are grateful to all those who have come to speak to us today and thank you for your cooperation. School board members will be listening but not responding. Madam Clerk please call the first speaker. Breanne Fitzpatrick.

[00:46:28] - Hello, my name is Bre Fitzpatrick and I'm a third grader at Weybles Mill Elementary. I am here tonight because my dad is an Air Force veteran and I wanna thank you for recognizing our wonderful Purple Star schools. Being a military kid is a big adventure.

[00:46:45] The hardest part for sure is moving. Military kids move between six and nine times before they graduate high school. And every time we have to say goodbye to our best friends and start fresh. It means learning about a whole new school, figuring out new playground rules, and making new friends.

[00:47:01] It can feel a little lonely at first, but I want to share the really great parts too. Military kids get to see different parts of the world and meet amazing kids from many different places. We learn how to be flexible and strong. Military kids are often compared to dandelions, the flower that can thrive and grow anywhere the wind takes it.

[00:47:24] We are really good at fitting in quickly and making new friends fast. That's one of our superpowers. That's why Purple Star Schools are so important. They help kids like me feel welcome right away. They make sure the staff and students know about our military life and help us feel like we belong.

[00:47:41] Thank you for making our transitions easier and for understanding our unique lives. I am proud to be a military kid and I am proud to be a part of the supportive school community. Thank you.

[00:48:00] - Carly Hutchins. - Good evening everyone. My name is Carly Hutchins and I'm currently a senior at Falls Church High School. I'm honored to speak today about, as a student who is a part of a military family.

[00:48:16] For us, being military connected means constantly learning to adapt. It means every few years we are walking into new schools, sometimes mid-semester, with a transcript and credits that don't always match up perfectly. That transition isn't just about finding my locker, it's about making sure I stay on track for graduation and can still pursue my post-secondary goals, whether that's college, military service, or a career.

[00:48:39] This can add a lot of stress to our families and our futures. That is why today is so significant. We are celebrating my school, Falls Church High School, and 88 other schools in earning or renewing their Purple Star designation. The Purple Star is more than just a symbol. It is our school's commitment to tangible, specialized support.

[00:48:56] It means our school understands military kids. This designation guarantees the academic continuity that is essential for us, making sure our credits transfer and our course placements are correct. When we enter our FCPS school, we aren't just handed a schedule, we are connected with dedicated staff and a strong community, including student ambassadors and other students ready to help us navigate the emotional challenges of being the new kid.

[00:49:21] Ultimately, the designation serves as a powerful symbol of understanding from the school and leadership, from the school and leadership transforming the school into a stable home base, where military students can confidently belong and succeed despite their constantly changing circumstances.

[00:49:36] Thank you to our school board, FCPS leadership and school staff for genuinely seeing the unique challenges we face. - Mia Scott.

[00:49:52] - Good evening, everyone. My name is Mia Scott, and I am a senior at Robinson Secondary School. My parents have both served in the Air Force, and I have a few family members that have served as well. As we recognize November as Family Engagement Month, I want to highlight how the Purple Star designation has redefined what family engagement means for military-connected students such as myself.

[00:50:13] For most students, family engagement is important. For us at Robinson, it is absolutely essential. When everything else can change, the school must be a steady anchor, and that requires strong support for the entire family, not just the student. The Purple Star ensures this critical partnership.

[00:50:29] It is a framework that guarantees academic continuity and robust social and emotional transition support, but it also formalizes our commitment to family engagement. This means that our school is equipped to do much more than just maintain open communication. It includes hosting welcoming events that truly connect new military families with established students and the greater school community.

[00:50:49] The Purple Star ensures we benefit from individualized support tailored to the unique challenges of military life. This means we get targeted resources to ensure our course pathways are appropriate for on-time graduation and we have the additional flexibility and support we need during a parent deployment or other military-related events.

[00:51:08] By offering this personalized care, the school ensures the whole family is supported. By committing to the Purple Star, you didn't just support military youth. You actively welcome and engage military families as true partners in our consideration.

[00:51:20] Thank you Gala Bumgart Gala Bumgart Kara Amstin good evening I'm Kara Amstin and my kids attend

[00:51:54] Deer Park Elementary which has never rescinded its covid recess and lunch policies recess is held with individual classes each class segregated to a different area of the playground lunch tables are limited to four students to a table up from three after parent advocacy this supposedly has significantly improved behavioral outcomes in the school but that's not a benefit that I've personally seen.

[00:52:19] What I have seen with these policies is that our kids are not able to play with friends in different classes, even when they can see them on separate areas of the playground. Some kids have to essentially rebuild their social circles every year due to friends being placed in different classes, and some are less successful than others at rebuilding these circles, leaving them feeling isolated and friendless.

[00:52:41] Students at lunch have been left to sit alone when tables are full. I walked in one day to find my first grade daughter crying alone at a lunch table because all the tables were full and she was told that she could not join another. I frequently observed other kids sitting alone.

[00:52:57] I've been told that shouldn't happen and wouldn't happen again, but it does. When students, other parents and I have talked to school admin and the superintendent's office about these policies, we're told that they're in place for the children's safety. I've asked but never received an answer, so I'll pose it here as well.

[00:53:14] Why are these supposed safety policies in place only at Deer Park? I can see three explanations for this. First is that Deer Park is inherently more dangerous than other elementary schools. The second is that the other schools care less about their students. But the third, and I think far more likely, is that the admin at Deer Park will simply refuse to rescind these policies.

[00:53:36] Despite a great deal of discussion on the lasting social-emotional harms that formerly necessary COVID policies left behind. actual benefit to our kids will go unproven and unchecked. After all these years Deer Park kids

[00:53:50] deserve normalcy. Thank you. Jason Moore. Thank you for your time today. My name is Jason Moore.

[00:54:16] I am a parent of a Canterbury Woods Elementary student, a Woodson High School student, and a former PTA president. I have come today to complain about the calendar. How can schools preach to parents and students about the value of consistent hard work and discipline when the structure of the school year itself belies that need schools should be the place where our students can practice for life the inconsistent calendaring of fcps while i'm sure is very sensitive to many different needs is not sensitive to the needs of our students preparation for life the the structure of the day and week is so inconsistent my students have stopped even

[00:54:55] asking why they have the day off the joke at the high school is apparently because it is tuesday The only full five complete day week my elementary students have had this year was in the second week of September, the week after Labor Day, which is now an inexplicably four-day Labor Day holiday.

[00:55:14] They had a day off for special elections, then Rosh Hashanah, then another day for Yom Kippur. The following week, my son was sent home three hours early for teacher professional development, I think. then my high schooler had a random day off that was not on the calendar for FCPS because other students at the school had SATs then there was a teacher work day then indigenous people's day then another work day then Diwali then another three-hour early dismissal because it was the end of the quarter then it was another day off because it was the end of the quarter then another

[00:55:50] teacher work day this week they have had election day and another three-hour early dismissal school needs to be the place the school needs to be the thing that our students do during the day five

[00:56:05] days a week for a full day during the productive hours of school thank you david calendar i stand here as the senior rabbi of the second largest jewish congregation in the commonwealth we have

[00:56:40] approximately 275 students who are currently an fcps and what i really want to do is spend my minute and 50 seconds telling you how great the schools are but this scares me a little bit So I'm going to focus instead that as caring adults, both parents and FCPS staff, we've done a disservice to our children regarding the widely shared Instagram posts by the MSA at a couple of high schools a few weeks ago.

[00:57:07] Adults responded in mostly three ways. It's kids being kids, it's kids being cruel, or stop picking us, picking on us, whomever us may be. And so we need to really ask a couple of questions here. One is, were these videos made just kids who saw something funny on TikTok and didn't understand what they were doing when they were grabbing people, forcibly putting hoods on their heads and stuffing them into a trunk of a car, imitating exactly what happened when over 1,200 people were murdered in Israel on October 7th of 2023, proportional to more than 40,000 Americans?

[00:57:46] Or did they understand exactly what they were doing, rallying people to a cause of violence and terrifying those victimized by this inhumane act? And we must be clear, morally clear, neither is an acceptable response. If it's a call to glorify violence and hate, it cannot be confronted by simply saying, it wasn't an official school account.

[00:58:08] We can't abdicate our responsibility to guide our young adults. And if it was kids being kids as parents and as educators, We understand that might have been the spark, but it doesn't excuse the behavior. We're morally obligated to respect and support our kids far more than that.

[00:58:26] As parents and educators, we have quite possibly the most sacred of tasks to nurture informed, compassionate, thoughtful partners and community. As we go forward from this instance...

[00:58:49] Vicki Fishman. Good evening. I'm Vicki Fishman with the JCRC.

[00:59:04] Since 1939, the JCRC has been advocating for human rights and social justice as part of our work supporting the Jewish community. Since October 7th, 2023, a day when 1,200 people were slaughtered in and 251 people were kidnapped from the only Jewish country in the world, antisemitic incidents have become so prevalent that we have had little time for anything other than fighting antisemitism.

[00:59:30] Jewish students and teachers have found themselves increasingly marginalized and afraid to share their Jewish identity. They report feeling demonized, ostracized, and erased. FCPS has not been immune, and we appreciate the partnership we have found in you, the school board, and Dr. Reed and her team, including many principals, teachers, and administrators.

[00:59:49] With all of this in mind, I cannot overstate the pain felt by FCPS's Jewish community in the wake of two recent incidents. First, several groups announced a Kefiyah Day to coincide with the anniversary of October 7th. The lack of empathy for Jewish students in that decision is shocking, but not as shocking and painful as the videos that at least two student groups posted shortly thereafter, which depicted violent kidnappings, kefiyahs, clothing showing the state of Israel completely erased by a Palestinian flag and the enactments of the deaths of the persons kidnapped.

[01:00:19] Many of our Jewish families consider Israel a second home and had friends and family kidnapped, murdered, or otherwise traumatized on October 7th. These videos were painful reminders and also threatening to a community which in recent months has suffered murders and fire bombings here in this region and in this country.

[01:00:36] Our schools should not tolerate such blatant insensitivity. I am here to thank you for recognizing the severity of these events, for properly investigating, and for appropriate disciplinary measures. I further ask that you take action to prevent something like this from happening again.

[01:00:51] Implement expedited teacher training on antisemitism, partner with the JCRC to bring our student-to-student program to provide mandatory experiential and peer-to-peer anti-bias training to the schools impacted by these events. And finally review social media.

[01:01:15] - Madam Chair, that was our last public speaker. - Agenda item 6.01, student representative matters. I call on Ms. McConan. - Good evening members of the board, administrators, faculty, students, and community members. Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

[01:01:31] I'm here today to address the pressing need for clear guidelines in the FCPS Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook, specifically regarding what students can and cannot post in school-related contexts. Recent events in our community have underscored a reality that we can no longer ignore. When expectations around student expression, especially online, are vague or underdefined, confusion follows.

[01:01:52] That confusion affects students, staff, and families alike. It can result in misunderstandings, inconsistent responses across schools, and situations where students are left uncertain whether something they post is appropriate, allowable, or potentially harmful. We live in a time where social media posts, comments, group messaging, digital communication, on and offline, play a major role in student life.

[01:02:11] These platforms can absolutely be positive spaces for creativity, advocacy, and connection, but they can also become sources of conflict, misinterpretation, or disruption when expectations are unclear. When students don't understand the boundaries of acceptable posting in school-affiliated settings, such as club accounts, class products, event promotion, or even fun shared posts on social media tied to school, it becomes harder for everyone to navigate difficult situations in a productive and respectful way.

[01:02:34] Currently, here's some of the things that the SRNR does address. In the SRNR, FCPS clearly affirms that students have the right to learn the right to feel safe while at school and on school property. It also addresses a student's right to feel safe, supported, and respected in the school community free from harassment, discrimination, or confusion about rules. The SRNR states students have the right to feel respected and treated with respect at school in the classroom, on the school bus, and at school sponsored events. Lastly, it addresses the school system's responsibility to maintain a positive, inclusive, and orderly learning environment. The SRNR emphasizes that students may exercise these rights and privileges as long as they do not interfere with the rights of others or the the school's ability to provide a safe learning environment in reading the

[01:03:13] current SRNR and related guideline guidance from FCPS I note that while me I know that while many high-level expectations are spelled out like not using words images or gestures that are obscene violent disruptive or disrespectful there's less specificity around school related posting digital and social media about whether when the school has the jurisdiction how school affiliated accounts or events are treated and how the message of digital citizenship is woven as posting expectations in those contexts there are number of good pointers in the FCPS's acceptable use section. For example, students are prohibited from posting information if it violates the privacy of others, jeopardizes the health and/or safety of students, is obscene, intended to be threatening, bullying, or hateful in nature, or causes disruption of school

[01:03:52] activities. But that language still leaves room for interpretation. And when practice is inconsistent across schools, students can feel unsure. I encourage the district to consider adding or strengthening the following areas in the SRNR: definitions of unacceptable content, without focusing on specific issues or events so the policy remains future-proof, include general categories of content that can cause harm or disruption: threats, harassment, discriminatory behavior, invasion of privacy, defamatory statements, calls to violence, intentionally false statements, harming reputation, etc. While the SRNR already includes language about words, images, or gestures that are obscene, violent, disruptive, or disrespectful, in the student responsibilities section,

[01:04:29] making the linkage to posting in the digital social context more explicit would help. Clear explanations of scope: when and where these rules supply for example in school buildings on school grounds and virtual classroom environments on schools or at bus stops on the way to or from school this is already explicitly listed in SRNR also on school sponsored on school sponsored activities off school property and on digital platforms when a post is tied to a school club class or account or when the post adversely affects the school environment additionally clarify how school managed social media accounts class club project pages or event promotion pages and student-led but school-affiliated channels are treated we should continue to encourage

[01:05:06] respectful and responsible posting reminds students of real-world impact of online behavior. Remind students of privacy concerns. Do not reveal personal information of self or others, do not post videos, photos or videos without consent, and be mindful of the audience and context. Encourage students to think of digital spaces as extensions of the learning community. They have the right to express ideas but also a responsibility to not interfere with others' rights or the school's mission. FCPS should clarify what happens when a concern is raised. How will be reviewed, who reviews it, what criteria are considered.

[01:05:34] For example, the age of students, the context, severity, whether harm disruption occurred, what steps follow. This should also include how students and parents can ask questions, appeal decisions, and understand how the policy is applied. FCPS mentions procedures in the SRNR regulation, but making the digital posting context explicit would help.

[01:05:52] Also, how investigation of digital posting will consider the online-slash-offline link, the intent, the audience, the setting, and how school jurisdiction is determined. Each year, students and families should receive clear, accessible communication about expectations for student posting digital behavior.

[01:06:09] Provide trainings on modules or modules on digital citizenship, including scenarios and examples of posts that are acceptable and posts that may cross lines. Make sure faculty and staff are equipped to consistently apply expectations and have a shared understanding of how the policy works in digital context to avoid inconsistent responses between schools.

[01:06:26] I want to be very clear. The purpose of strengthening these guidelines is not to limit students' voice or to chill expression, but to make sure students have the information they need to express themselves confidently and responsibly without fear of unintended consequences. Clarity benefits everyone. In conclusion, I respectfully encourage FCPS and the school board to review and refine the SRNR to provide clearer and more explicit guidance around student posting and digital communication, especially in school-affiliated contexts.

[01:06:48] With clear expectations, we can prevent confusion, reduce avoidable conflict, and ensure that every student has the support they need to contribute meaningfully to our community in a positive and respectful way thank you for your time thank you agenda item 7.01 action item certification of closed meeting compliance since the board needs to return to the closed meeting towards the end of the regular meeting we will return to this item later today after we conclude the conclude the closed meeting agenda item 7.02 confirmation of action taken in closed meeting I call on Mr. Moon for a motion thank you madam chair I move that the school board authorized

[01:07:26] legal counsel to settle the matter discussed in closed session according to the terms and conditions discussed therein is there a second second thank you Mr. Frisch all those in favor Mr. Frisch Mr. Marin or Ms. Marin I'm sorry it's been a long night um Ms. Marin um Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Ms. Seismarheiser, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself.

[01:07:54] Those opposed? Those abstaining? Mr. McElwain. That's 10-01. The motion carries. Agenda Item 7.03, action item, award of contract, architectural services.

[01:08:14] I call on Mr. Dunn for a motion. I move that the school board authorize staff to negotiate professional services contracts with selected firms for architectural services for various facilities projects and authorize the division superintendent or the chief operating officer to execute deliver and administer the contract on behalf of the school board is there a second i second miss st john cunning mr dunn would you like to speak to your motion no thank you miss st john cunning would you like to speak to your second no thank you i will encourage all board members to make sure their lights are off

[01:08:54] But seeing no others, we'll go ahead and call for a vote on the motion. Mr. Frisch, Ms. Marin, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Ms. Seismar Heiser, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson and myself.

[01:09:16] Those opposed? Abstentions. Mr. McElveen. Agenda item 7.04, action items, award of contract, architectural service and engineering services, Cub Run Elementary School renovation project.

[01:09:33] Call on Ms. Dixit for a motion. I move that the school board directs the superintendent to provide the school board with the thorough analysis and rational for the estimated cost for the cub run elementary school project in the CIP determine whether the use of design build or the construction management at risk methodologies could reduce the cost and time frame of the cub run elementary school project without causing any significant delay in the renovation construction process and determine whether the modular or off

[01:10:09] site construction of the new school building adjacent to the existing building could reduce the cost and time frame of the Cobram elementary school project wherein the existing building could be demolished or repurposed. Is there a second second. Thank you Mr. Dunn. Ms. Dixit would you like to speak to your motion. No we we would like to have the board to give their opinion on this. Mr. Dunn would you like to speak to your second. Yes please. Earlier this year the board

[01:10:45] approved three elementary school renovations which ranged between 37 and 43 million dollars the estimate in the cip the capital improvement plan is that cub run elementary school renovation will cost approximately 99 million dollars which is two to three times the cost of the recently approved elementary school renovations the first part of this motion requires requests FCPS to provide a thorough analysis and rationale for why the cost is 2 to 3 times the cost of

[01:11:19] renovations approved earlier this year. The second part seeks to determine whether recently approved policies, specifically policy 8240, which embraced new methodologies for construction renovations, specifically design-build and construction management at risk, could potentially reduce the cost of construction and accelerate the time frame so that the renovation is delivered faster and cheaper without causing any significant delay in the renovation construction process.

[01:11:52] The third part of the motion seeks to determine whether FCPS could construct a brand new school adjacent to the existing school and Khabran is one of the largest school campuses in our portfolio and at one time was designated as the future site of a western high school so there's definitely land there that's available and whether it could be constructed not just in a traditional way but using off-site modular construction which is essentially pieces of the building constructed in a factory which reduces environmental waste and actually results in higher quality construction

[01:12:30] with those pieces then trucked to the location and assembled within a matter of days like lego bricks so the purpose of this is to both see think outside the box get an analysis that will not take too much time will not delay this project significantly but could enable this project to be completed at lower cost in an accelerated time frame and the benefit of that is that other schools that are currently in the renovation queue could then be accelerated in terms of the time frame when those schools will be renovated and liberate dollars to

[01:13:05] allocate to those additional schools in the renovation queue so ultimately this is a first pilot project looking at whether these new methodologies or these different approaches that have been examined by the school board in recent months including at a work session last spring could help us address the 42-year renovation queue that is currently bedeviling our school system because we need to be closer to 20 to 25 years which is the school division policy and industry benchmark thank you thank you Mr. Dunn uh Dr. Anderson um thank you for

[01:13:45] bringing this to our attention uh just a quick question I know that this uh motion is requesting additional information but just preliminarily is there any information that can be provided now regarding the vast difference between the cost of cub run in the other elementary schools as determined well as stated by mr. done just a little while ago because I believe the others were in the 30 million range and this one is 99 million I'd love to hear what the differences are that may have led to

[01:14:15] such a gap yes ma'am I'm gonna turn to mr. Gordon to share some of the planning details mr. Gordon thank you ma'am for a surfer your three points so I'll take a note on the first and third and we'll come back with more detailed information on those two for the second point regarding what does a contract support the contract we have for cub run was written the RFP was written to support traditional design bid build and CM at risk so there's two procurement procurement methods within the current RFP at no additional cost to the

[01:14:55] organization again I'll take a note on the first and third point and reply more information back through the superintendent thank you so dr. Anderson I don't think we have detail to be responsive this evening about the cost differential but I make sure we have something by tomorrow evening in the Friday letter no thank you I was just wondering if there was something top of mind miss Marin yes I appreciate this being lifted up and you know we have been doing a lot of work to get our procurement more streamlined and I do

[01:15:34] wonder if the increase in cost is due to actually using you know current dollars and inflation and tariffs and all those things we know that what has been put in the cip you know in the past has not been adjusted for current rates so i i'm going to share something that i've shared in at other meetings but the work that myself and kyle mcdaniel are doing on the joint facilities committee with the board of supervisors i think is really eye-opening and it's a huge opportunity and what is just clearer and clearer all the time is that the three land authority agencies in Fairfax County

[01:16:10] must be together in the room more often having a conversation of the county board of supervisors with the school board without the parks that leaves questions unanswered if it's the parks and the county supervisors we've got unanswered questions I think it's imperative that the three agencies involved in all things school facilities be at the same table together often and so I'm I'm sharing this idea now with you all tonight and my intention is to bring action for the board's approval that directs the superintendent to schedule regular meetings with her counterpart executives of the county's two other land authority agencies at regular intervals.

[01:16:48] Is it a month? I think it needs to be. I also think included in that meeting would also be members of the oversight body of each agency. We've got to do something to bring the three entities together. are stalled and that costs money and until we all sit together over our all of our combined assets in Fairfax County we will continue to waste taxpayer dollars of time and time as well so I look forward to that conversation with you all. Thank you. Thank you Ms. Marin. Mr. Dunn for

[01:17:23] a go back. I just wanted to mention one detail which I forgot to include which is if you look at the remaining schools in the renovation queue that have not entered the design phase it adds up to 660 million dollars just for eight elementary schools that would consume all of the available school bond funding for the next three years in total and not allow any dollars to be left over for any high schools middle schools or other elementary schools or other priorities in our county which is why starting with this analysis is so prudent i also just want to mention with

[01:18:02] With respect to the contract that was put on Consent Agenda, that I pulled off Consent Agenda on October 23rd, it was for the architectural services only, not for the entire project. And while it did allow for CM at risk, my concern with that contractual approach from a government contracting perspective is you don't want to start with an architectural contract if you're doing design build and construction management at risk.

[01:18:30] And those new methodologies that were just approved, you should start with the general contractor and the general contractor would then hire an architect. So I don't want to start with a small number of millions dollar contract and somehow back our way and through a back door into a hundred million dollar contract.

[01:18:46] That would not be a best practice in the government contracting field. Thank you. Ms. Lady. Yeah. I thank you for bringing this and obviously, I would hope it's obvious, all about fiscal responsibility and being a fiduciary of the taxpayer money so if this which is the amendment in front of us it can help save money then I'm all for it I'm not sure about the environmental impacts of building a brand new school next to a

[01:19:23] school and what we would maybe do with that property and I'm interested in this Lego idea I'd like to see some construction that's been done that way I'd like to see and hear reports and reviews of satisfaction if you will you know I have learned in my time that there's no idea that's not a great idea until I learn more about it so and the other thing I'd like to say is that you know I was and remain surprised since like since I came on the school board as someone who came from an education background how much we rely on land the

[01:20:01] county other entities that i would think that we are rowing in the same boat with um i i have a great rapport with my colleague and my counterpart on the bitter supervisors um and i i just i do believe that there's some room for us to um spend more time um thinking collaboratively around everything that we're trying to do for our constituents and certainly in relation to our school system and our facilities so I'm not sure what that looks like moving forward but I certainly understand my colleagues thinking around it'd be nicer if there were more often times when we were all at the table I don't know what

[01:20:40] that looks like I certainly just trust our chief of facilities and and and his team when it comes to that type of thing but it was one thing that surprised me when I got on the board so I'm just sort of left this is a confessional for me but I didn't expect that the work that we were endeavoring to do sometimes would be slowed by other processes that have to take place, permitting, etc. So anyways, I think I support this and I appreciate my colleagues' efforts to make sure we're fiscally responsible in the use of taxpayer money. Thank you, Ms. Lady. Seeing no others, I'm going to go ahead and call for a vote

[01:21:21] On the motion which is on the screen all those in favor Mr. Fresh Miss Marin Mr. McElveen Miss St. John Cunning Miss Lady Miss Dixit Miss Seismar Heiser Mr. Dunn Mr. Moon Dr. Anderson and myself that is unanimous for all board members present.

[01:21:38] Agenda item 7.05 action item new western high school programming. I call on Miss Dixit for a motion. I move that the school board approves western high school to be a comprehensive high school with the traditional boundaries that include a special programming pathway option and the following enrollment plan will be implemented for s f y 26 27 or s y 26 27 grade 9 and 10 will be opt in for s y 27 28 grade

[01:22:14] 9 10 and 11 will be opt out and for s y 28 29 grade 9 10 11 and 12 will be firm boundary. Is there a second I'll second Mr.

[01:22:30] Fresh mystics that would you like to speak to your motion. Just briefly I'm very excited this is finally happening. We are in a unique position to make a meaningful impact in our community. One that creates positive ripple effect across all high school in the western part part of the county.

[01:22:47] I fully support the establishment of the new site as a traditional school model. This this approach will play play a pivotal role in alleviating the overcrowding issues currently experiencing in our high school in the western side of the county this strategic move will not only enhance the quality of education but also distribute the student population evenly ensuring that each student receives the support they need to succeed this concept of offering a specialized pathway option is an excellent initiative as we prepare the students for the 22nd century learning whether focused on av ai aviation or engineering this program will provide

[01:23:27] student a unique opportunity to develop skills and gain specialized knowledge before entering college and the workforce. Thank you. Thank you Mr. Dixit. Mr. Pritch would you like to speak to your second. Sure I always say just briefly and then I don't it's not brief but this is going to be brief. I appreciate the work that's gone into trying to figure out how to make this the most manageable process we can and the creativity that went into coming up with a system that will allow us to begin the pathway work bring students into the building and do it in a way that's

[01:24:06] manageable you know I think this is the first step in something that is very exciting and that is opening a new high school and I'd be remiss if I didn't know again that we're saving hundreds of millions of dollars as a result of this deal that's it thanks thank you Mr. Fresh Dr. Anderson thank you I do want to say this is it's good to be at this place with this school I know it was momentous when we made the decision to purchase the site and now that we're seeing it fleshing out

[01:24:45] it's exciting it's always exciting to open up a new school it's like the new school year I feel like each of it is a gift one of the things that I wanted to make sure that we talked about Dr. Reed Is what I know I have heard from folks in the western end who have also reached out to me as a person who represents the eastern end regarding their concerns, which is one.

[01:25:07] Will it relieve overcrowding at the surrounding schools? So can you speak to how this plan will accomplish that first year, second year, third year and beyond? So thank you, Dr. Anderson, the opt-in is specifically for the five Western high school pyramids that are likely to be, that were intended to be impacted in terms of overcrowding, in particular, the three pyramids, Westfield, Chantilly, and Centerville.

[01:25:41] So, and then as we've looked at different preliminary drawings, Oakton and or Southlakes had, there was some impact there as well, but it's unclear whether the final drawings will actually impact those two pyramids.

[01:25:58] However, they are part of the five Western pyramids that are still under discussion. So we would restrict the opt-in to be from those five pyramids on a space available basis. So the intent would be, again, to really address the overcrowding in those areas.

[01:26:18] over the two-year run-up to a full enrollment, then the boundary will be complete, and the intent of the boundary work and the opening of the school is to relieve boundary or to relieve crowding in those western pyramids. I believe Mr. McDaniel is not here this evening, but he did the math around 1,700 students in trailers in these western high schools right now, so we know, and our Chantilly High school in particular with its footprint and parking and fields and so forth we've

[01:26:52] had some concerns for quite some time so the enrollment pattern planning as well as the approach to the school is intended to relieve overcrowded conditions in the western high schools thank you given the opt-in nature which is a little bit less predictable but there will still be at a point where you'll determine the impact to these schools will we be able to receive the utilization impact at various intervals of the opt-in process yes I'll provide

[01:27:27] monthly updates and we likely will not have enough spots to accommodate the number of students who want to opt-in and we'll have to I think craft a process to make sure that it's equitable and you know because we won't take more than 500 9th graders and 500 10th graders so i know that our planning principal mr jagels will be working with dr ponce um on you know the the smooth opening of this school and wanting to make sure that um you know that we'll provide the board regular updates on the enrollment thank you as i

[01:28:06] shared also during the work session yesterday and our discussion today i hope that you're correct that we have lots of enthusiasm and we have more students than potentially could be served during this first year my concern is once the realities of certain limitations comes to bear we may have students making different decisions if that were to be the case do we have a threshold where we would consider it too minimum too few students to be an effective school and the second part of that will you allow yourself and your team enough time to gather that

[01:28:42] information and pivot into more outreach and recruitment efforts in order to receive some sort of in order to obtain a minimum number of students to make this a workable first year yes ma'am we will we've become very good at pivoting in the last few years and I think that the team will be relentless in our quest And I really do believe that we're going to end up having more young people that want to be a part of opening a new school, then we're going to have spots and we're going

[01:29:17] to continue to evaluate our registrations that we'd like to begin this coming month in December. I know Mr. Jiggles is going to start visiting schools, but I will provide updates and we We'll make sure that we're staying focused on opening the school in a cost-effective manner.

[01:29:41] Thank you. And my last question is regarding process and timeline. If this were to be passed this evening, what can the community expect regarding process and timeline? Thank you. If the board approves this this evening, I know that Dr. Ponce will be meeting with likely both Ms. Boenig and Dr. Choice, which are the regions 1 and 5 regional assistant superintendents because we haven't determined which region yet the western high school would be placed in

[01:30:16] to finalize a transition schedule but it would be my expectation that in the next several weeks the planning principal will be moving forward with visiting schools sharing information about the schools and functioning as close to the high school registration process as students in any other high school would be registering because those processes need to run in parallel for incoming 9th and 10th graders and will there be and just this just came to me will there be an opportunity for students who could potentially opt-in

[01:30:51] now by whatever the timeline and deadline that your team will set and may want to make a different decision maybe in the summertime how beholden will students be once they opted is it irreversible so yet to be determined but you know students move around we just spent this evening celebrating our military-connected youth and we may have students who opt-in whose parents get orders to place elsewhere and obviously won't remain even though they may beg to

[01:31:27] remain to stay and be one of the Western high school students I think we would want them to go on with their families so I yet to be determined I will have more information I think in the coming months and I'll try to you know for the board and we'll be creating a Western High School web page landing page for community members that are interested in that and I'll try to make sure we provide weekly updates on that to the board thank you and I'm glad to support the fact that this will be a comprehensive high school to really be overcrowding with the surrounding schools because I know that's been a

[01:32:01] conversation since I've been on the board so yes thank you yes ma'am Mr. Dunn well as always Dr. Anderson asked many of the questions I have in mind she would make an excellent police detective with her own detective TV show so she'd find the perpetrator every single time so I did want to ask for students who are considering you know going to the Western High School right now it lacks certain athletic fields like a football field and and and it's not determined we haven't publicized any schedule for when we'll determine what

[01:32:40] athletic facilities for example go there or even what special pathway will be available there and so I want to understand just the date by which students have to make a selection determination which I think according to a schedule I'd seen was January or February like it's fairly soon but they won't really won't know what's there so in many ways so they're kind of picking a black box in some ways yes sir and I think that one of the recommendations from our executive director for athletics and activities is that in the

[01:33:16] first year we would open as a non VHSL school so that students who choose to attend this new high school will have the option to participate in any VHSL sanctioned activity at their base school so as we make sure that we put those facilities and fields into place at least in year one students have the opportunity to participate in their home school and we are providing we will be providing transportation to just those five high schools after school for

[01:33:52] students to participate in any VHSL sanctioned activity so I think that for year one, students can be assured they can still participate in those activities and have an education and be part of building a culture at a new high school, which I've seen a number of new high schools begin. And there's a certain excitement to be that first senior class of a brand new high school or to shape the culture of a brand new high school, choose a mascot, which I have high hopes

[01:34:24] for um and um you know to just create something really special and you know each high school that's been opened in fairfax county has had that opportunity and it's something that you know stories are built on for many years i'm that that sounds very creative um uh i've never heard of a non-vhsl high school i mean it makes sense the way you describe it um i i had looked at the rules at the time this question first came up like what would how would you determine eligibility because that's a topic we've talked a lot about in recent months but is that consistent with the

[01:35:02] rules that you can be attending one high school even a non-VHSL high school and still participate in sports at a different high school because it seems to me if that loophole exists you know there could be school systems that decide oh we're we have we don't have a new high school but we'll just you know non-VHSL this one and and the best players can go different high school it just seems like you could drive a truck through that loophole if that exists. Yes, sir. Mr. Horn was explaining this during our work session and he will also be part of, he'll be providing that information on

[01:35:35] the landing page for the Western High School. But there is a VHSL carve out when divisions set new boundaries and that's what we would be doing in this case. This is a boundary related topic in a new high school. This evening I don't want to speak for him because I think he'll explain it more thoughtfully than I can, but it's on his recommendation that we would open as a non-VHSL high school for year one because we really won't have a junior and senior class either, and

[01:36:08] for certain VHSL activities, that would be something that would be pretty important to have. So it's on his recommendation that we would go down this path, and it's my understanding that that's not a new path for Commonwealth schools.

[01:36:27] Thank you. I also just wanted to thank you for the thoughtful way that you've gone about soliciting public input with literally thousands of people. And I wanted to thank my colleague, Ms. Tixit, for her leadership of this school opening because I think she's done a fantastic job. And I really appreciate the very heavy community engagement for how to structure the school and the programming and everything else associated with the Western High School.

[01:36:50] Thank you, Mr. Noon. Ms. Mary, the purchase of Western High School is historic and noteworthy, as it is the first school facility in decades purchased by FCPS. I had planned to space some more things praising this momentous adoption.

[01:37:09] However, it's come to my attention that the motion that was posted yesterday is different than the motion that is now posted. And I know that because I sent an email out to my entire list of 30,000 constituents with the motion that was posted yesterday that has since been embellished.

[01:37:27] So I have some questions. I've asked before who was responsible for writing motions. I don't think that that's clear. The work plan that we keep tonight is listed as new Western high school programming.

[01:37:43] We have distinct other agenda items for phasing. What is actually in this motion is programming and phasing. We have had other conversations about phasing. I think we had about two work sessions about programming for Western High School.

[01:38:03] We had one conversation that ended 15 hours ago about phasing for Western High School. There is no written document. There was not. However, I see as of today's date, our clerk has added a document with today's date.

[01:38:19] we talked about yesterday I raised that there are costs incurred with opening with a firm boundary in year 2829 and we discussed yesterday that there is a difference between a renovation and a capacity enhancement. If a renovation, a change must come before the board to adjust the CIP. I'm really disappointed that things were done at the last minute like this in a very not transparent way. And the fact that we're asking questions moreover about VHSL and busing, there should be a

[01:38:57] that tells us everything we need to know before we commit to this high school on this schedule. I think it's a real egregious dereliction of accountability to change the motion overnight. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to make a motion. I move to amend by striking in the motion the following enrollment plan on downward. So I move to amend by striking quote the following enrollment

[01:39:31] plan will be implemented 2026-27 all each of those three lines madam chair point of personal privilege can we recess for five minutes with the motion made let's have it at the dais then carl yes the board will take a

[01:40:04] quick five-minute recess board members please take your seats

[01:47:10] point of order can we please reconvene okay coming back from recess is there a

[01:49:36] second dr. Anderson miss Marin would you like to speak to your motion so it's come to my attention further that the motion that is in board docs is just a little bit different than the motion that was in the script that was given and read. It's just a grammatical thing.

[01:49:54] It's not that big of a deal, but the motion that is on the screen now with the strikeout is what I move. So here's the thing. All along, my understanding has been when we talk about phasing, we are talking about the way that students are enrolled into a school of a new boundary. We're going to talk about phasing of students with the boundary changes. Then we talk about programming. With Western High School, programming has always been about whether it's going to have a traditional geographic boundary or if it's going to have a magnet program that's going to pull from different places. And the board has been pretty consistent that we agree that,

[01:50:32] well, I won't say everyone, but the discussion has been we were voting tonight on programming. And I sent a newsletter out yesterday to my constituents saying only that top part because that's what was listed on board docs yesterday in the late afternoon at the end of the discussion because that's when I sent my email.

[01:50:49] I actually sent it out this morning, but it points to this page now. Yesterday at the conversation, Dr. Reed presented this idea, and also there was an idea that I said about perhaps the implementation can wait until the following school year, which is 27-28, of which the superintendent thought had merit.

[01:51:10] We also as a board have a duty to publicly notice our decisions. This motion has not been noticed. I also am unclear who is writing motions and the board's role to review them. I think this is an egregious workaround of of our governance, you know, standards of transparency.

[01:51:33] And I cannot recall any other time where the board has finished a conversation and 15 hours later voted on it. The first presentation of the information there about that phasing was yesterday at 3 p.m. So all I'm saying is, let's divorce the two topics, stick to the topic that is on our work plan, which talks about programming, and let's get to that phasing at another time.

[01:51:58] Because you know what? We're not even setting the Western boundary until the spring. There's been a lot of confusion. We have no cost estimate from the CIP or what renovation would cost. we don't know the plan for transportation or how much. There are next steps from tomorrow's work session that are going to inform the decision about phasing. So I hope that my colleagues can just put a pause on the second part, which I'd be glad to entertain another time, but let's stick to the plan, which was just to vote on Western High School being a comprehensive high school

[01:52:36] with traditional boundaries that includes a special programming option. Thank you. Dr Anderson do you like to speak to your second yes briefly I wonder I have an ask and I guess and then two questions for Dr. Reed I guess my ask is could we create two motions out of the two that are there because Miss Marin was correct and that we had been speaking about for weeks that we were going to speak we were going to be voting on the type of high school meaning

[01:53:10] comprehensive and the type of special programming meaning that special pathway so that has been the expectation I was not expecting and I think that's kind of been the the chatter on this side of the dais that the second part would be there so that would be my first ask can we create two separate motions mull that over while I ask Dr. Reed two questions the plan of engagement with families have you detailed that out already in what is that timetable I know

[01:53:46] I asked this just a little while ago but I want to get a little bit better clarity to understand what happens if that second part is not provided so I think the team is waiting for the approval to set the plan and the sooner we're able to determine the registration process the sooner the planning

[01:54:09] Principal can go meet with students at schools thank you for that my second part is I imagine that your staff wrote this motion and provided it to the board I'm assuming at this point so please correct me if I'm wrong and if that is the case what and what what what precipitated the change of language to add that second portion the staff doesn't write the motion the staff writes a recommendation I see so the recommendation change staff wrote the recommendation based on both the memo I provided to the

[01:54:47] board earlier this week and the conversation we had at the work session yesterday much appreciated so then I guess my advocacy would be for us to divorce these two because I know everybody was ready and prepared to speak to the first part of the motion and then we could have a second vote on the second part of the motion there's no loss so I guess I don't know if I can make a motion to make that motion how would you like that handled chair Anderson I'm sorry where there there is a motion pending at this point to strike

[01:55:26] out the second part so a division of the question wouldn't even be in order at this time in my opinion even if it were in order this can't be divided through that process because the two parts are not independent in order for the second part the enrollment plan to be adopted there has to be the approval of the of the first part but the motion can be to strike could be adopted and then a motion made after that for the second part okay then I would like to take that

[01:56:02] under consideration I'm hoping we can go ahead and vote on this part of the motion as I guess we're voting on the strike through and then I'm happy to represent represent the second part as a distinct and separate language thank you Dr. Anderson I'm going to ask that all board members turn their lights off and if you wish to speak to this

[01:56:25] amendment then turn your light back on okay Mr. Dunn Dr. Eade on slide 14 of your boundary presentation at the work session yesterday had indicated a a timeline and the timeline had November 13th 2025 New Western High School WHS programming vote the next event on the timeline

[01:56:59] is December 18th 2025 boundary phasing vote what is meant by the date December 18 2025 boundary phasing vote is that what is meant here by opt-in opt-out firm boundary no it's not uh what the december 18th vote at least from the staff's perspective was was a vote brought by um a vote on whether or not the division was going to support funding for transportation for the phasing plan that's division-wide which would include the western high school but would include

[01:57:38] all the schools based on the motion that the board passed several meetings ago if you're in high school you would stay you had the opportunity to stay in high school middle school was the same and i believe fifth and sixth grade at the elementary and so we had scheduled a vote uh on whether the division was ready to or able to fund that phasing plan and that was my understanding for the vote on december 18th it was more so a funding than it was a because we've already voted to approve the phasing uh follow-up question on that do we know

[01:58:15] what we know by december 18th what the estimated cost would be of we're working on that yes sir this second part and i don't have a position one way or the other but the second part seems highly related to that transportation because as i understood the options that you provided on slide 15 of your presentation from yesterday you know you have you know no no transportation if you're out of boundary at any at any point and then transportation provide in boundaries so that seems very linked to the december 18th vote granted it's not division-wide it's specific

[01:58:48] to the western high school but it's kind of the same category is it not well the um how do i say this the what's the same category is the cost um nexus which is to say i think i was front loading the if you will likelihood that we're not going to be able to fund this division wide traditionally when we funded phasing solutions it's been at one two or maybe three schools at a time but not

[01:59:22] every school in the division that might be impacted by boundaries so i it is connected in that the we would want to make the same cost decision for the western high school as we would for all other schools but i think in the staff's mind it wasn't connected um in the sense that the board already has determined phasing for all current schools this was more so about making sure that we have adequate programming that we can talk about confirming that we're starting with ninth and tenth graders and confirming we're adding ninth grade a year at a time i staff felt i think in

[02:00:00] that this was more of a programming conversation than connected to phasing but i can see how it um might be confusing i can certainly see that i i just want to make sure i understand what i'm voting on with this language that's being struck out um does this if if i vote for the motion in full you know including the struck in language does that represent a decision in your mind on providing school bus transportation inside and none outside the boundary because in other words is there a decision on school bus transportation outside the boundary that is included in this

[02:00:36] motion not technically because that's the december 18th piece but but but that's for division-wide this is for western high school right this the opt-in um you would that's what i presented yesterday yeah i mean your slide slide 15 i mean if i vote for this yes i'm voting on school bus transportation am i not within the boundary for the western high school it will be drawn you are right so so if i can just make a suggestion i'm not making any motions but there should be some language about school bus transportation here if if we are going to vote on this second part because otherwise we're leaving unclear and I think it's important to provide clarity to

[02:01:15] the superintendent and her staff. Thank you. Yes sir. Mr. Fresh. Dr. Reed if the board were to vote for the second half or something like the second half you know depending on how the board kind of mulls it over at the next meeting which is December 8th right is it really? December 4th.

[02:01:40] December 4th, thank you. How disruptive to the trajectory of the plan would that be, if at all? It would just delay the ability to go out and meet with students to solicit interest in the school because we can't do that until after the board has met.

[02:01:57] When would that start? Well, if it were approved tonight, it would start. We had hoped to start December 1. If it's not approved till December 4th, I don't know that we would start it before winter break because I think we're down. december 4th would be the end of the first week of december um and you know i'd have to go back to the team so because when i'm looking at what we've got between now and just what you said december 1st well i think what we were hoping to get i don't have the calendar in front of me this

[02:02:34] evening but i can pull it up we're hoping to get out to schools as soon as possible and also be able to share with parents that we're coming you know we'd want to send letters out to families first and let them know that we're going to be coming out to school so there's a whole sort of sequence of events that would need to occur part of that is going to be planning that doesn't touch families until we step out to do the outreach right I imagine that the outreach to families wouldn't start during the week of Thanksgiving because everybody's you know lots of people are no longer here I think that would be next week which would be the week before Thanksgiving I

[02:03:13] think was the plan for reaching out to families and not December 1st well that would be the school visits okay but you'd have to do I guess my point is if we meet if we make the decision on the fourth which is perfectly I mean this is all within your purview obviously but if you make the decision on the fourth I think we would be reaching out to families the following week which would mean school visits wouldn't likely occur till after winter break and what is the overall impact there then hard to measure honestly i wouldn't be able to speculate this evening i know that registration

[02:03:51] starts in january so i think it's the opportunity to you know to move forward with that but i mean if it ended up being later we'd have to accommodate that i think the difficulty i'm having is that and i realize i'm seconding this motion because miss marron said will you second this i'm like sure um is that there's you know so so people know roberts rules allows anything on the agenda to be changed within the board's rules uh providing it happens before a meeting right

[02:04:25] and so the chair can move something on the agenda um and at times there's an absolute need for that kind of dexterity um as chair and so um there's nothing procedurally wrong with how we are here now but uh you know i think that there is an argument to be made that the board would benefit from having two weeks or until the next meeting uh for the second half of this motion um and so i would be

[02:05:01] in favor of one one of two paths one we amend the motion and drop the second half until the next meeting or two we provide people an opportunity to vote for the first half and the second half tonight and one provides more airtime for the motion to be out there and the other at least allows somebody who might be in favor of part of the motion to vote in favor of part of the motion and not in favor the other whether they're against the other because of the way that it would be

[02:05:38] implemented or because it wasn't out in the public in their view long enough so I'd be in favor of either of those approaches Mr. McElveen so I very much appreciate the conversation and particularly Miss Marin and mr. Dunn raising raising the concerns with the main motion as it was written my main question on this is is there a reason we aren't receiving any sort of presentation with this tonight the presentation that's attached to this is

[02:06:17] from the October 7th work session which is more than a month ago and I just think for the public's benefit it would be helpful to have explained what opt-in means what opt-out means what firm boundary means and all this phasing so I guess the question is is there will there be any sort of presentation I could certainly we I think I think we did the presentation yesterday afternoon so the

[02:06:56] But we hadn't planned to do the presentation again this evening. I think. Okay. Well, that's fine. My concern is just for the general public who doesn't watch work sessions to be presented with this tonight.

[02:07:12] It would be very confusing to me as a member of the general public. So I'll just leave it there. But I'm supportive of Ms. Marin's changes. Ms. Sizemore-Haiser. Dr. I just want to clarify on the same question that my colleague was saying.

[02:07:28] what you were saying is this if this whole thing passes as is tonight your plan your team's plan and please correct me if I'm wrong is to go out to schools immediately to start talking to students is that correct or did I mishear that well our plan was to begin communicating to families first five pyramids and then be out in schools shortly thereafter because we want to make sure that students have time to contemplate this and have some sense of what the programming is gonna the timelines and that type of thing the VHSL pieces you

[02:08:05] know it's a it's gonna be a different proposition so I know our planning principal wants to get out to schools as soon as possible and begin talking with students about the possibility of enrolling and making sure that registration is able to be done in a timely manner when does registration for high school students it January when they have these conversations traditionally high school student registration occurs in January early January mid-January when I don't know that I have that nuanced it's kind of throughout those dates I think it's rolling in January and it may be somewhat sight-determined but generally it's January is my understanding and so if we

[02:08:44] don't vote on this tonight and it gets delayed let's say to the 4th to have the vote then then well then you're not really gonna be able to do this conversations with families and the schools you're butting up against winter break in all the winter concerts and things like that so then it's really more of an outreach in January which then maybe impacts registration correct which can impact staffing is that what I'm hearing I'm trying to understand the urgency for today I think that's I think that's why staff felt the recommendation would be helpful to get started this evening given the conversation we had

[02:09:20] yesterday afternoon but we will work within the confines of whatever is determined tonight well I'm just asking to help me make my decision what would the impact of doing it tonight versus staying waiting so I'm trying to get a sense of the impact would delay the outreach and registration that would be correct do you have a sense of the amount of that impact of the delay I'm trying to get a sense like how how much would it here's what I'm worried about if we're delaying till January and students have to decide quickly or they have to decide to register for classes which then maybe impact staffing the staffing decisions schools are making I'm just trying to get a sense of the

[02:09:59] impact of the delay to get a sense of because I do understand what my colleagues are saying too so I'm just trying to get a sense of how much that's an impact because it's a huge decision to switch high schools I just started a new high school and so I want to make sure families have enough time and enough time to ask the questions and enough time to be thoughtful and talk to counselors and talk to maybe teachers that they trust or principals and so my worry about delaying is the impact it'll have on families and students from making that decision so I'm trying to get a sense of i mean that i'm trying to keep state students at the center of this decision right and the students at the center of the decision i don't want to negatively impact them right

[02:10:37] significantly so i'm trying to get a sense of what's that impact to the students and their families because that's my number one priority here well i think we're on a tight timeline to register students for the new school and i think the impact the less time young you know students and families have to decide I think it makes things harder right but so I mean I think that was why the recommendation was to see if we could get moving sooner because I do think it is a big decision to your point I think dr.

[02:11:16] Anderson has raised that as well there are a number of variables for students to consider in terms of their activities their friends and so forth so I do think the sooner that we can reasonably come to a decision to begin registration for the new school, obviously the better it is for planning purposes.

[02:11:38] - Thank you. And I know that there was a conflict of events that got us here tonight. Part of it was having to delay the work session on this because the travel of some folks on the board. And so, you know, I think that made it more difficult to have the thoughtful conversations 'cause I believe this was already scheduled for the sixth and then had to be rescheduled because we didn't have quorum for that day because some board members were traveling, which happens I get it but I understand that's how we got to where this conversation happened yesterday I also to and I so I understand the frustration of new language that we weren't anticipating and I and I do really get that because I think it's important to be able to have the time for those

[02:12:15] thoughtful conversations however if we're going to keep students at the center of our decisions it seems to me because we're not meeting again till December 4th not be able to have those robust conversations next week the week for Thanksgiving that first week of December before students and families get really busy with all the winter concerts and the end of year events it's hard enough to keep students at the center of that decision and that's where my mindset is which was asking that question so thank you miss Dixit so I'm

[02:12:51] in the center of this situation so a lot of community members have been reaching out to us and asking about the programming of the school in terms of which grades Dr. Reed you have been speaking about this grading which this will be open to 9 to 10 grade in different community meetings and I have been talking to the community as well it is not new information it is being going out in form of many community outreach meetings and anybody who reaches out to me we speak about that a lot of parents are waiting for

[02:13:27] information our students are waiting for the formations to make the decision for next year. At least this will solidify their just like you said their thought process. So I as being the district you know minister can you know a member I believe that we need to take the decision today and and not December 4th because of that again the time it will just delay by many many weeks And we know January is where students like to decide.

[02:14:00] They do course selection with school. And there's so much of interest in the school. And I feel we are missing an opportunity and just doing a disservice and just not coming to an agreement on a simple matter like this.

[02:14:16] This is this is not confusing to me. It's very simple. We've been talking about this. We are voting on it and having it on on a document just doesn't change anything which we being you know mentioning for all this time so this is my point in that and I'll support love to have get support of my colleague and getting this done today thank you mr. moon thank you madam chair I I was one of the board members who was so surprised seeing second part of the

[02:14:53] language this evening with that said let me ask a couple of questions to Dr. Reed looking at the language on the bold as is I'm focusing on the second part and comparing that to the a work session PowerPoint slides slide number slide number 16 point of order madam chair I apologize mr. moon the amendment is out

[02:15:32] of order because it was not provided to the board 48 hours in advance now I know what you're thinking either was the motion that's true but there's a

[02:15:41] solution to that problem. The motion, the amendment is out of order with the 48-hour rule. Madam Chair, Madam Chair, Madam Chair. We're going to take a five-minute recess. Everybody stay here. Point of order. Okay, coming back. Mr. Fresh, can you please restate your point of order? The point of order is that 48-hour rule was not followed in the proposal of an amendment to a board-directed motion. Okay, that point of order is well taken, and we are going to bend the current amendment that's

[02:32:30] on the table. Call on Mr. Frisch for a suspension of the rules. I move to suspend the rules, specifically the 48-hour rule for this action. Is there a second? Ms. Sizemore-Hyser. This motion is not debatable and requires a two-thirds vote to pass. All those in favor, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Ms. Sizemore-Hyser,

[02:32:59] Mr. Moon, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson and myself. That is unanimous. I call on Ms. Marin for an amendment. For a motion, yes. For a new motion. For a new motion. Right, because we suspended the rules. Thank you. I move that the school board approve Western High School to be a comprehensive high school with traditional boundaries that includes a special programming pathway option.

[02:33:29] Ms. Marron, I need you to state your amendment, please. Oh, apologies. I move to amend the motion to strike the language after the comma of the option and the following enrollment plan will be implemented and that plan.

[02:33:48] Is there a second? Second. Dr. Anderson, Ms. Marron, would you like to speak to your amendment? Thank you. I don't have anything new to add. I do want to say that I do not support if this becomes, I don't support moving further on the opt-in, opt-out, that timeline this evening.

[02:34:08] I appreciate my school board colleagues being flexible and thinking about this in a different way than was presented. And I do hope we can move forward with approving the Western High School as a traditional boundary because we do know people are waiting for this. I think the questions that we need to do our due diligence on to understand the transportation costs, other terms of rollout, and especially the costs for a renovation and how that needs to be adopted into the CIP.

[02:34:37] I think having a memo and a presentation for the next part of this decision making would be wise. And I think, you know, we are doing something we've all never done before, approving the opening of a new high school. So there are lessons that we're learning and I think just taking things one step at a time would really be best.

[02:34:55] So I do hope my colleagues can support this motion and wait on further action until the next meeting on anything else. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Marin. Dr. Anderson, would you like to speak to your second? Yes, briefly. I do want to share that during my first go-round, one of the questions that I asked was about the timeline.

[02:35:13] And the timeline, there was no information that was really articulated. And I understand as these things happen they develop a little bit but I do think there's a little bit of hair splitting between December 1st start and a potential December 5th start.

[02:35:29] We will still have two weeks in December for parent engagement and student engagement and school visits before schools are out. The other piece that I thought was very curious and I'm glad that Mr. Dunn raised it was regarding the presentation yesterday which was about the Western boundary.

[02:35:47] everything therein was about the Western boundary and on that 18th line which I did not pick up on it spoke to the phasing and so that's a piece that stands out to me and furthermore I understand that there was a change of a meeting but I want to be clear that quorum could have been had with eight members of the board four members traveled so there were enough people in order to realize that meeting four people would have just missed out so I want to be sure that I shared this and my last piece is while the discussion

[02:36:21] regarding the opt-in and opt-out is not new it is new to the motion and I think that's part of the governance process that we have been trying to hold steadfast to and I stand by what I said earlier which is decoupling these activities is the way to go for this evening so that each person can properly provide their supports for the segments that they are supportive of so thank you miss Marin who are raising this point because this was not the

[02:36:53] motion that I think we were expecting mr. moon thank you I don't share but I don't have to repeat what's been already stated by miss Marin and dr. Anderson thank you miss lady I hope I'm doing this in order if the amendment as as in of us is there is this appropriate time for me to speak to programming okay because I just want to say that you know having having toured the Western site

[02:37:33] twice I well I think I'm the only person who feels this way on the board I think there's a strong appetite for either an Academy like in Loudoun County where kids are at their base school one day and then they're at the Academy for a different day for pathways I kind of like that idea more than a second magnet but it's kind of like a second magnet so I guess I just want to share that while I understand the appetite for comprehensive high school I worked at Chantilly High School I understand the over capacity we definitely need as I believe dr. Reed shared earlier we have about 1,700 students I believe from

[02:38:12] Centerville Westfield and Chantilly that are in either modulars or trailers we have to alleviate that anything we do with this site would focus on alleviating population in those places I'm just not sure I'm a hundred percent I know I'm not a hundred percent behind a comprehensive high school um I think there's other ways to to do uh programming thanks thank you Miss Laney uh Mr Dunn um I just wanted to bring up the point that uh we because we are doing opt-in I think opt-in is something we haven't done before um on this scale and so approving at

[02:38:52] at least the first part tonight would be beneficial so we can at least get a sense of the numbers sooner rather than later because if opt-in doesn't work we're going to have to do something different i know that we can take up to 500 ninth graders and 500 sophomores but if we get 50 each or 100 each or 150 each i don't think we're going to open a new high school with only you know 300 kids total right we would need to resort to other measures so doing it earlier i think is beneficial from an

[02:39:24] operational perspective thank you mr frisch my apologies my light was on from the motion thank you i am going to take a brief turn here um i i was not anticipating that we were assuming that the enrollment plan was the same as the phasing so when when we were discussing this

[02:39:59] yesterday I recognized the fact that we were talking about busing and things like that but for me this was really about implementation of students at the school which for me is programming it's talking about because the the whole point of this motion is talking about whether or not we're going to have a magnet school or a traditional boundary so the whole idea was talking about how we're going to implement and implement the traditional boundary that we actually are saying that we want to do. So I actually am fine with in terms of the layout here. What I was

[02:40:37] anticipating is that the phasing discussion that we were going to talk about later in December was related to the busing question that we've been having because of the changes that happened to the phasing language last summer. So I do not see this in the same manner. I see this as an implementation of the traditional boundary and how we are going to make that possible. So I really strongly feel that we need to get started on this because we keep hearing not only from board members here but also from the community about the concern and the angst related to making sure not knowing

[02:41:15] whether or not they're going to have the opportunity to get registered as quickly as they want to related to other schools and things like that so I am not in favor of delaying that at least getting started for the next year at all I would like us to get moving so that way we do we are able to actualize what our plan is and actually have a class come in next year so I am very interested in in moving forward like I said I was not considering this as part of the phasing and I am perfectly

[02:41:48] okay with having to separate it if necessary in order to make that happen, but I don't see a problem with the initial because it's all about how to make the traditional boundary happen. If we didn't have the traditional boundary, we wouldn't be having the discussion about opting in and opting out because it would all be opt-in because it would be a magnet.

[02:42:11] That's where I don't understand the difference. For me, the transportation cost doesn't matter in this decision because of the fact that we have to provide transportation for the kids that are going to go to the school anyways. So we had to think about that decision when we bought the school.

[02:42:27] So we're already down that path. We have no choice as to whether or not we're going to be able to provide transportation or not. And we're in the midst of a countywide boundary look, which means we're going to have a harder decision in a few weeks related to whether or not we're going to be able to provide busing to everybody for this monumental thing that we haven't done in 40 years.

[02:42:48] So for me, this is all about what we are doing to support the traditional boundary discussion. With that, I don't see any other lights, so we're going to go ahead and vote for the amendment, which is to remove everything.

[02:43:03] Can you guys amend it again for me, or move to the amendment? He's got it. Okay. What we're voting on right now is for the amendment on the screen. All those in favor Mr. Frisch, Miss Marin, Mr. McElveen, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Moon.

[02:43:29] All those opposed Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Miss Dixit, Miss Seismar Heiser, Mr. Dunn and myself. Can the clerk please read the vote?

[02:43:48] The vote is 5-6. The motion fails. Okay. It is not amended. Okay. Thank you. I call on Miss Dixit for an amendment. I moved that the new Western High School.

[02:44:04] I move that the school board proves Western High School to be comprehensive high school with traditional boundaries that include a special programming pathway and the following enrollment plans will be implemented 2026 2027 grade nine and 10 opt in.

[02:44:23] Is there a second second. Mr. Dunn OK so the amendment the current amendment is just to remove the 26 or 2728 opt out and the 2829 firm boundary those two lines that would allow for more discussion later when we are discussing everything at december 18th miss dixit would you like to speak to your your amendment i think enough is said we need to get our community students know as soon as possible and gosh their

[02:45:02] interest we understand people are busy so we want to give them enough time and also for our students or some of them are excited and they want to know what what school they want to go to so it'll be great for them to sign up and our school administration will have a better understanding of how many students are interested a little bit better for planning purposes thank you i'm sorry chair anderson we're just trying to understand what just so the amendment failed so we are back to the main motion yes and there was an amend an additional amendment to the

[02:45:41] the main motion so we are in the second amendment because will the parliamentarian please explain the concern it sounds like the that Miss Dixit read a main motion again even though there was a main motion pending she did however what she was doing is reading what the amendment to the main motion is because the main we are back to the main motion which is all of it together and so she was just reading the part of the motion that will carry so her amendment is to remove the bottom two lines it would have been clear if

[02:46:21] she just moved to strike those lines and not read them we got motion as it would have been a minute thank you okay mr. Dunn I'm pleased to second the motion to strike the last two lines of the motion I think this provides a necessary clarity for the superintendent to move forward in advertising to students in grades 9 and 10 who wish to opt-in to enrollment at the Western High School. I think it's absolutely necessary that we advertise as soon as possible so that we get a sense of the number of students who will opt-in and

[02:47:00] if it's below what is necessary to populate the high school then we will have to consider additional measures. If it's above then perhaps there can be a waitlist or other measures but that would be a positive sign of excitement from the community. Because we don't have a boundary for the Western High School at this time, and we won't until late in spring, I believe May or June, then opt-in is the only option available to us to populate the new Western High School grades 9 and 10. This is part of an orderly transition. This is a best practice. It has been done in other

[02:47:34] school divisions, and I believe this is an excellent plan to ensure full utilization of capital asset that cost 150 million dollars use at the earliest possible time and and proceed in a manner that is consistent with the uh renovation schedule that has been provided uh yesterday during the work session which is a multi-year phased uh work schedule thank you thank you mr dunn miss eismarheiser thank you and i agree with my colleague here and i thought it was very well said i mean at the end of the day what we are doing here with this purchase of the western

[02:48:11] high school and now filling it with enrollment is a once-in-a-generation change and a once-in-a-generation plan that is going to very much benefit I've been on this board we've been talking about the need for a Western high school but haven't had the funding for it it's been on in our CIP for 10 years this is a sort of a gift to be able to address that overcrowding and many of my colleagues work very hard to make this happen but we can't necessarily always stick to how we've always done things or how maybe we like things to be perfect and procedurally to get things done and in my almost six years on the board

[02:48:50] there have been many times where I've had to face a decision between what is best procedurally and what is best for the students and I will always make a decision that I think is best for the students hands down in this case giving the students as much time as possible to make a monumental decision as to which high school they want to go to with their families with their counselors with other maybe teachers they trust rather than forcing that decision two weeks before a winter break when there's concerts and other things going on and then coming back into january and rushing that decision when they may have to make enrollment decisions but at their high school they would be going to or not

[02:49:31] this is not perfect and sometimes governing is messy but when you have something like this that has I think never happened before at least not that I can think of in Fairfax County and an amazing opportunity that we were able to take advantage of to save a lot of money and address overcrowding I don't see how we can't give our students the grace and their families the grace as much time as possible to make a very monumental decision so that's how I'm ruling because to me the students should always be at the center and their family should always be at the center thank you Ms.

[02:50:07] heismar hazard miss lady yeah so you know i'm still separating these two um i don't need to speak to the big the initial meat of the issue which is the programming but i did want to speak to the opt-in for grade 9 and 10 um well i don't think i can support the motion as written i just want to reiterate that this is essential um that we didn't want to do a forced boundary nobody had an appetite for that um this is a unique opportunity it's not often you you find a school that falls in your lap but you know you can't open it as a vhsl because you don't have all the facilities

[02:50:43] it's not like something you planned for because it was in construction um and again i want to echo some what my colleagues said that the students are the center of this and i attended the open house the appetite for kids to go to this school is oh my gosh i mean the enthusiasm i have no worries that with an opt-in that we're going to have a full class um and i'm worried more about turning kids away but so while I support this part of it also counselors yes for people who need understand course registration I can assure you that counselors are going into middle schools the week after winter break if not by the first week

[02:51:20] after certainly the second week after to talk about programming so it's essential we start this process it needs to start next week this part of it needs to move forward and again I I didn't see this at all as a phasing thing I saw this as a programming thing as to how we're going to how we're going to bring the kids to the program so again probably not going to vote for the motion because I would like to see it more as a magnet not a comprehensive but focusing on alleviating the overcrowding at the schools I talked about earlier so I'm excited at the end of the day Wow what an opportunity ribbon-cutting is gonna be amazing the kids who go there and do amazing things it's gonna be amazing

[02:51:59] school miss Marin I don't support this motion because I do not have a plan from the superintendent showing the details I need to make a decision that encumbers taxpayer money, especially because it continues to be unanswered whether this renovation that would allow for phasing to happen at that rate, even to allow kids to enter the first year, we don't have the answer about whether this would be something that would require a change to the CIP renovation queue, which is something that is done when the CIP, capital

[02:52:39] improvement program is changed and that's scheduled to happen in January or February and I'm very concerned that the superintendent doesn't see that as a problem especially given our very precarious situation with our facilities funds we already moved funds from a currently listed school Centerville High School to purchase this school and that was within our authority but now we are talking about digging deeper into those already allotted funds with no discussion from the board, so I'm not comfortable making that decision. You know, it's curious to me that there's a concern for the time allowed for students going to Western High School if they want

[02:53:17] to go. At the same time, we are scheduled to make a decision on boundaries on January 22nd, at which time those students will be directed to go. That's in 10 weeks. So we are providing much preferential treatment to these students so that they can get going on their high school course selections while the students that will vote on their boundaries on january 22nd will already be well into the coursework planning process and will be required to go not of their own choice especially because we're not allowing yet phasing between something like an eighth grade and a ninth

[02:53:55] grade so i'm just trying to reconcile these these different approaches you know i like to have a consistent set of rules to operate with and I know this is a new high school and it takes some unique circumstances but the phrases I heard tonight also the superintendent has said quote we're hoping to figure this out quote it's yet to be figured out quote it's hard to measure the impact quote I'm not able to speculate this evening it is I cannot make decisions using taxpayer money and changing the trajectory of students and families lives based on speculation we We didn't have a presentation tonight.

[02:54:32] The motion wasn't clear 48 hours in advance. We have rules and procedures so that we know what's coming and the public knows what's coming. I think the experience here at the dais provides an opportunity for reflection on what further training the board can commit to in professional development.

[02:54:49] We've yet to have a retreat where everyone attends. I think we could really focus on some Roberts Rules training and some clear commitment about how we're going to ensure that our clerk team and our board and our superintendent are providing the public with the information expected well in advance.

[02:55:09] I'm disappointed that the last thing I want to say is I'm disappointed that and confused as to why at least one board member voice support for my motion and then voted against it causing it to fail. There was an opportunity for more of us to get to yes tonight and I just remain very confused about this whole thing.

[02:55:28] Ms. St. John Cunningham. First of all, I want to thank the staff and the superintendent for all the information that was provided to us in the work session. I think a lot of questions that were asked tonight, we could find the answers in that work session.

[02:55:43] I also have absolutely no question that this original motion was talking to an enrollment plan. And I think that because we're doing boundary work and we're talking about phasing with boundary versus opening a new school we're conflating the two there are there are two different things there are two different ways that they would be handled and whenever you would open a new school you would do an enrollment plan the boundary situation is different we're conflating it and we have spun ourselves into more confusion that is necessary it is very clear to me that this

[02:56:21] was only about enrollment and how we were going to get the students enrolled and get this off the ground. I am happy to support this motion. I'm happy to support my colleague and her magisterial district where she knows that the community wants this, the student wants this. It's also important for our students to be there, but also for the families in the community. Again, conflating this with a CIP and renovation versus a new school.

[02:56:50] We've already had that discussion. We're treating this as a new school. I just think we get ourselves so confused when it's not necessary I am going to support this we bought this school for a reason we don't need it sitting there we need to know how it's going to how we're going to enroll these kids and that's what this plan was all about I am happy to support this motion thank you Mr Moon thank you madam chair uh thank you for the amendment I am inclined to support this amendment uh with that said that I need to just to clarify a a on the conversation

[02:57:29] you know Dr. Lee you and I had during the break for public let me ask a couple of questions about registration process for the students for the first year who may be deciding on opting in versus just staying in staying at their schools so if for them to be able to opt in wouldn't they need to know what sort of courses will be guaranteed to be offered and when would they

[02:58:02] be provided to the students so thank you mr. moon the courses will be similar to the core 9th and 10th grade courses at all our comprehensive high schools with the exception of the specialized pathway and the the choice around registration would happen at the same time registration happens at all the other high schools which is in January that I'm sorry was that the second part your question so when would they know what courses would be available oh they will know when the

[02:58:37] counselors and the planning well in this case the planning principal mr jagels will be visiting schools within those five high school pyramids and depending on when this plan is approved there would be communication to families and then visits to schools to visit with students So if the students are normally expected to start registering from January, will we be able to give all the information prior to January?

[02:59:04] I think that the students, the visits to the students are going to talk about the 9th and 10th grade core comprehensive high school courses. And those visits to the sending schools are going to begin before winter break, correct?

[02:59:23] Before winter break. process itself will occur in January because I think there's some obviously there's going to be some discussion about the need to explain to families if you don't end up in the actual boundary that we draw and the board approves later in the spring that families will need to provide transportation to the school so that's a piece that students enrolling in other schools don't have to consider but that is a piece that families will have to consider in registering for the new Western High School. Is it is it your intention to offer

[03:00:01] classes no matter what the enrollment will actually be I'm hoping that there will be enough students to be able to offer you know full array of normal ninth and tenth grade classes plus some pathway courses at the new school but if if the enrollment becomes very low, is it your plan to still offer all those courses?

[03:00:25] Because students will have to make a decision whether to stay at their schools versus going into new school. Because based upon our conversation during the break, we're not allowing double registration. - Correct. Yes sir, we can't have double registration because then we would be staffing schools on both sides and we don't have the budget to do that.

[03:00:46] So just as comprehensive high schools put out course taking registration right students put in these are the courses I want to take not all courses get staffed because some courses don't have enough students that sign up even in our traditional comprehensive high schools so we will put out the menu of courses and staff to the course selections that students sign up for so there may be some courses that don't get enough sign up that won't be offered whereas other courses will get enough sign up and will

[03:01:18] be offered. The core graduation requirements have to be offered, right? So even in comprehensive high schools today, in fact, we talked about it in the work session briefly yesterday, even when students have an opportunity in tally sheets to sign up for courses, either there's sometimes a conflict matrix, which doesn't allow every course to be taken in every period, so students have to choose.

[03:01:47] And also there are times when courses aren't offered because there just weren't enough students that signed up for that particular course. So I know that Mr. Jagels has previously been part of opening a high school in Fairfax County Public Schools when Westfield High School opened.

[03:02:04] And he's very familiar with the need to put courses out. And then those students, you know, The master schedule is developed by the choice the students make you know some of the courses I'm particularly thinking about sophomores as opposed to freshman right because sophomore could take higher level than freshman and so maybe taking a much higher level math than normal sophomores or even word language classes.

[03:02:36] So I am concerned about those cases where students want to go to a new high school excited but want to pursue certain higher level courses but if there isn't enough enrollment they are not going to be offered so taking a risk in making decisions.

[03:02:57] So those are the cases because we're not again allowing students to explore both the new schools and their current schools for registrations. So I think what we're going to have to look at, and we're already looking at it related to our transfer policy, is what courses can we provide through an online option, whether it's synchronous with another instructor at another school or within our own online school or within a specialized program, that would also help minimize some of the transfers around world language, for example.

[03:03:33] If we can offer those as an online option then students can stay at their base school. So as we look at opening a new high school there may be some advanced math courses that we're not going to get enough sign up with a ninth and tenth grade class and we may need to have a synchronous link to another school for a year or two till the new high school has its courses built out or we may need to have it be a synchronous with a honestly a region teacher because frankly we have a lot of high schools

[03:04:10] where there's not enough sign up yet for certain courses that it might be beneficial I know dr. Ponce is looking at a variety of options and his team so that students that maybe they're five or six at a particular high school that want multivariate calculus or differential equations or linear algebra and aren't able to take it even in a four year fully enrolled comprehensive high school.

[03:04:33] So I think we're looking at a variety of options and we would certainly make use of that technology at the new high school for those first few years as well. Just one last comment is my strong suggestion is to provide the community and students and parents all this information as much as possible as soon as possible perhaps providing FAQ somewhere that was your time yes I do agree the as soon as

[03:05:05] possible I think is what was part of the conversation given this opportunity so I

[03:05:15] appreciate the advice. Thank you. Dr. Anderson. Thank you. You know I think in my excitement over this whole process I think I too also put the cart before the horse here because when I'm looking at the language here in terms of what we're trying to accomplish tonight and I heard this from multiple speakers which is we're trying to determine the course of study. We have not really determined the course of study because we haven't even identified what that special programming piece would be.

[03:05:47] So I guess a wondering that I have is, what are we going to present to the community when you, the planning principal, goes out saying, yes, we're going to have the regular courses for ninth and tenth grade, but what's the course of study? What's the special programming? What's that special piece?

[03:06:03] That has not yet been settled. In the course of study, the program is what you're going to do. It's not who is going to do it. That enrollment piece is a different and separate and distinct conversation.

[03:06:19] It's not what we have been discussing here. And the more that I'm sitting here and absorbing what's being shared, the more that I'm seeing we're really splitting hairs on the timetable because so much of the information is not yet available in order to say that today has to be the day.

[03:06:35] I fully concur with many of the things that Ms. Marin shared earlier. And while I am so anxious and excited to vote to say yes, we're going to have this be a comprehensive high school, because for me that was the only way to address the issue of overcrowding at those Western schools that I've been hearing about since I've been on this board.

[03:06:56] And I was also super excited to say yes to we're going to do something special at this place. I was even more excited to hear that that something special could essentially be replicated elsewhere. In our conversation today, you mentioned so many things.

[03:07:12] I'm like, oh yes, one per region, yes. So I was really hoping to say yes. But for me, we've kind of muddied the waters a little bit. A lot of things have been conflated. So I'm not going to be a yes on this motion, but I'm excited about the first part.

[03:07:28] I'm excited about the comprehensive high school. I am excited about the special program study. I'm not excited about how we're going about this right now Because I do not think today is the deal breaker to recruitment of students into a program of study which has yet been defined and coupling that with what I've heard from you and I've heard from Robin Miss lady and I want that to be the case where there's so many kids that are excited about this we're going to have to turn them away.

[03:08:00] If that's the case what's the rush. I I'm a no unfortunately on this motion. Mr. Frisch. Thanks. Two things. One, I don't vote for or against something based on procedural issues because I don't think that the record captures procedural concerns well, right? Somebody reading minutes from this meeting in a year or two will assume that the people voting against it had an issue

[03:08:36] with the motion and people voting in favor of it had an issue. So while I disagree with how we've ended up where we've ended up, I would have voted for the first half on its own. I would have voted for the second half on its own. They're together so you know I'll be voting for it but procedurally not a happy camper. Thank you Mr. Frisch. We are going to go ahead and vote for the amendment that's on the screen. All those in favor Mr. Frisch, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Dixit, Ms. Seizmerheiser,

[03:09:16] Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, and myself. All those opposed? Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Dr. Anderson. All those abstaining? Ms. Lady, will the clerk please read the vote?

[03:09:36] - 7-3-1, the motion carries. - Okay, now we are back to the main motion. I am assuming, I know, we're not done.

[03:09:51] We now have to vote on the actual motion that's on the screen. So, calling for a vote of the amended main motion that is on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. Frisch, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Dixit, Ms. Seizmerheiser, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon and myself, all those opposed, Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Dr. Anderson.

[03:10:16] All those abstaining, Ms. Lady. Will the clerk please read the vote? - 7-3-1, the motion carries. - Thank you. Agenda item 8.01. - Might be recognized, Madam Chair. - Yes, Ms. Marin.

[03:10:31] - May we please take a five minute recess? as long as we keep it to five minutes.

[03:10:35] Yes, we are adjourned or recessed for five minutes.

[03:17:49] Board members, please take your seats.

[03:18:06] Following us, agenda item 8.01, performance review, learning environment and relationships with students, EL-10 monitoring report. Each year, this school board assesses the superintendent in part on the basis of the school division's reasonable progress towards achieving the 2023-2030 strategic plan goals adherence to a set of 13 executive limitations found on page 14 through 31 of the board strategic and strategic governance manual the superintendent provides annual monitoring reports to the board for each executive limitation the board then votes on whether the provided report is in compliance or if

[03:18:46] corrective action is needed I call on dr. Reed for a monitoring report on executive limitation 10 learning environment and relationships with students good evening madam chair members of the board and the public Tonight, as the chair has shared, I'll be presenting Executive Limitation 10, which is learning environment and relationships with students.

[03:19:08] In Executive Limitation 10, it's very clear that we need a learning environment that's safe, respectful, and conducive, obviously, to high student achievement and well-being. At the time of this report, to the best of my knowledge, information and belief, we've gathered information and evidence that I believe supports compliance with the board's executive limitation associated with this topic and would like to share some of the highlights this evening.

[03:19:35] As a reminder, there are nine areas of EL10 that are shown here, and during this evening's presentation, I will focus on any new work, updates, or newly added items to this EL since it was last presented and approved by the board.

[03:19:51] for those watching at home the full report is posted on board docs and much of the work related to this executive limitation remains consistent year-over-year to support our work here in making sure we have a learning environment that is conducive to learning I will say that one aspect of the learning environment that I think is really important you heard from several students tonight is the importance of our purple star program and our incredible increase as we

[03:20:28] pointed out in the reception before the meeting it wasn't very many years ago that we had 11 schools that were purple star schools and as I stand before you this evening we have 145 schools that are purple star schools next year we plan to have all 200 of our schools be purple star schools and those programs support a learning environment in particular for our military connected youth that enables them to be successful as they transition in and out of Fairfax County Public Schools and I think that's something that this board

[03:21:04] can be very proud of sponsoring when I think about new or newly added information one of the things that has happened year over year is that there's been an effort made to increase consistency across the division with regard to secondary grading practices which have been aligned to the new policy 2418 so there has been a movement to a single grade book type consistency around design and reassessment and an increase in consistent use of assessed homework within secondary classrooms furthermore our instructional services department has revised the way teachers provide

[03:21:44] feedback on report cards the comments have been revised to communicate more detailed feedback, and a work habit scale has been introduced to provide feedback to students and families on time management, organization, assignment completion, and overall effort in class.

[03:22:02] In terms of new or newly added information, our Title IX office now utilizes a procedure for working with school-based administrators reporting sexual misconduct cases into a collective and division-wide reporting system called Guardian and all of our school-based administrators have been trained in use of this platform during our student rights and responsibilities training sessions this summer so those are new pieces that have gone into executive limitation 10 otherwise we've maintained consistent practices in a year-over-year process so madam chair

[03:22:40] this concludes the summary of the monitoring report for executive limitation 10 learning environment and relationships with students and I'm happy to take any questions thank you Dr. Reed I now call on Miss Seismerheiser for a motion I move that the school board finds the superintendent is in compliance the executive limitation 10 learning environment and relationships with students I further move that the school would approve the monitoring report based on the superintendent's reasonable interpretation of executive limitation 10 learning environment and relationships with students as outlined

[03:23:20] in the governance manual. Is there a second? Second. Thank you Miss Lady. Ms. Seizmerheiser would you like to speak to your motion? Yes I would. I'm happy to second this today or make this motion today. While I think there's always continual room for improvement and how we are in our learning environment and our relationship with students I think you've made a lot of great progress. And I can just say from the lack of complaints that I hear about my schools I think our principals are doing an excellent job and our administrators in their schools and I think just some of the data we see around the student survey and the student when we see the surveys on students around trusted relationships for those with

[03:23:59] adults that is going up and that is all related to the learning environment I also think you've done some great work here to make the learning environment more inclusive and so a couple things I wanted to mention that I saw in here just to give you a kudos that I was really excited to see because as you know this is something I've been probably talking about for 15 years but has been in the works for six but I'm very excited to see that there'll be a learning seminar with executive functioning at all secondary schools next year. So I wanted just to ask a question to see do the counselors and IEP teams are they ready to make sure started since it's now December to make sure

[03:24:38] that those conversations are happening for next year's enrollment. So great question I know Dr. Presidio on the team we have talked about that very issue so Dr. Presidio an opportunity for you to I trust share good news on this topic. Yeah no absolutely the team has been working hard on that and it's definitely taken longer to scale up than we would have liked but we're excited about where we're at and continue to provide support to not just the counseling teams but the special education case managers and administrators in the building about this as well. Thank you. I would encourage you as you move forward with this a lot of this is talked about specifically organizational time

[03:25:15] management skills and I would really encourage as you build it out to make it a more holistic support around self-regulation goal-setting some of the social-emotional goals as well because as we know it's not just time management and organizational skills but I think this is a great start and I'm really excited to see that happening the UDL work is also for me personally a very exciting thing but I would just ask as you now we've rolled out the training to have implementation spot check, because I've been hearing, in fact, at the ACSD meeting last night, there was testimony from somebody about the lack of UDL in assessment design and honors classes.

[03:25:55] And her daughter having to leave an honors geometry class, not because of the lack of ability to do the math, but the way that she had to turn in her answers required a significant amount of executive functioning. So the test tested executive functioning more than the knowledge.

[03:26:10] So just something to think about when looking at UDL to make sure it some implementation spot checks as well on that piece of it so a couple things but i think and the last i just mentioned is a portrait of graduate work to make sure it's consistent across all classrooms because if i recall from a work session conversation the data showed that it's not happening consistently across the different types of classrooms and settings we have so something to look at is that making sure that portrait graduate work is happening for everybody yes ma'am but i'm very excited to move this and i think you've done some amazing work you and your team and I look forward to um seeing some of this this good work moving forward especially on some of these long-standing initiatives that have been needing to be done

[03:26:50] thank you I know the team has worked really hard so I'm very proud of the progress they're making in particular Dr. King's team has done a lot with the discipline school discipline consortium in the last year the amount of training that school-based administrators have done and Dr.

[03:27:09] king's team has led is really impressive and dr king do you have just a moment to share how many folks have attended the trainings and in general the very positive feedback that our school-based administrators have provided yes at least 95 of our school-based administrators have attended training for school discipline but also we have 95 of our schools have at least one restorative justice practitioner from 75% last year to 95 this year our team is working really hard to ensure that we're supporting schools so that discipline is consistent across our schools it's implemented consistently across our

[03:27:48] schools and that we're continuously training on best practices around how to reduce discipline disproportionality in our schools it's great work that you've been doing I really appreciate it and one thing I did want to mention you mentioned the inclusion work in here and I but I remember hearing I'm gonna go green bar east with my colleagues soon but what i've heard is that that's one of our inclusion pilots and what they found in the pilot is the amount of discipline referrals has gone down significantly with the inclusion work so in with the data around inclusion around outcomes it also helps with discipline so i think continuing that inclusion work will have great dividends in many

[03:28:27] areas across the county so i'm hoping that'll continue strongly so but no thank you for your great work and that's great to see thank you miss lady would you like to speak to your second yes briefly um again kudos to the team um it's amazing when i read the reports uh the detail and and just from you know my tenure in the system you know three-ish years ago to now it's just a wow factor for me uh every single time i go through and think wow um how much that could impact this or this or this and how when we look at this el um you know absolutely i think that learning environment is

[03:29:07] just off the charts i think that um what what is happening with the fidelity of udl um is amazing um the differentiation you know i i think that you know udl basically is saying you know basically teach to i mean like and i i know teachers who did this for years um is if they had students with IEPs then they just provided that's how they taught the class I mean all kids can benefit from differentiated instruction and a lot of kids have executive functioning issues that are you know they sort of have to learn by

[03:29:44] trial and error so I'm excited also about the introduction of that you know in terms of curriculum so yeah I'm just you know it's great work thank you you know dr. Reed I give you a lot of credit for your leadership and vision but you do have an amazing team and you know It's just great work.

[03:30:02] So I'm really, really proud to be a product of this system, but also to be close enough to watch the changes in real time and see the increases we've seen in test scores, et cetera, across the board.

[03:30:17] The performance is great. And just being at boundary meetings, being there tonight with our military-connected families, I really appreciate the way in which you're present with people and the way in which your team present with people and the amount of listening that's going on and and yes there's talking but I do believe there's a lot of listening and then that's that's channeled into change and I really appreciate that thank you thank

[03:30:42] you dr. Anderson mr. Dunn thank you there's a lot of positive stuff in this report so thank you for all your hard work and your team's hard work I want to ask about the end of high-impact tutoring which is that funding is running out. And we have a lot of data showing that for the students who have fallen behind, that that high-impact tutoring is absolutely essential to get them back on track academically at

[03:31:17] all levels, right? So can you talk about, you know, if the state, federal government do not, you know, keep that funding going, is there a strategy to enable FCPS to maintain that option or something like that to keep kids on track who fall behind?

[03:31:35] So it's a great question, Mr. Dunn, and you've obviously also been paying attention to the data and the research that high-impact tutoring does make a difference. We are continuing to work with EduTutor, Chris Amundsen's program, and Grant Involve in terms of tutoring.

[03:31:54] One of the things that we've found in the last probably several years is we have a number also of retired educators that want to come back and support. students so we're gonna look at how can we provide high-impact tutoring maybe with not full-time people but people willing to come in and work hourly or work part-time to support students we're also gonna I think begin to look at some programs that might be not so much online but supports that can come

[03:32:33] alongside co-pilot type support for students for tutoring particularly in some of our more advanced mathematics or science courses but I think it's something we're wrestling right now with with our budget how do we have the same level of high-impact tutoring that we currently have to continue to get those results we've also looked at in some cases pairing high school students that come down and work with our elementary students since high school gets out earlier and we've got a number of high school students that have been very

[03:33:08] excited about that possibility honor society students who need hours and expanding that we talked with several of our student advisory groups in terms of even creating something like a varsity letter for community service hours that might include tutoring as an example so I think we have to look for models to do it because you know it is a best practice but in this tight budget time I I think it's going to be challenging to continue to hire the high-impact tutors we've been able to hire.

[03:33:42] Do you know the dollar spend per year on high-impact tutors we have right now? I would have to defer to either Dr. Ponce or Dr. Presidio, and if they don't have that off the top of their head, we'll get it to you by tomorrow night's Friday letter. That would be great. I'd like to just have a sense of that dollar value, because in terms of providing a world-class education to every student, which is, I know all of our commitment, then that's very important in terms of the alternatives you mentioned i know edu tutors and whitman i think it's the only uh school that they're in in the county and and i know from speaking to chris amundsen that getting into whitman getting into fcps was extremely difficult

[03:34:20] the most difficult of any school division edu tutors dealt with so is there anything that's being done to lower the barriers to entry so edu tutor can expand to more schools in fairfax county i think um miss amundsen and i have spoken about that and i think early on it was just the THE BACKGROUND CHECKING BECAUSE WE'RE VERY PARTICULAR ABOUT THAT WITH PEOPLE WORKING WITH OUR CHILDREN.

[03:34:41] BUT I THINK THE CONNECTION HAS BEEN MADE AND SO IT SHOULD BE MUCH SIMPLER FOR EDU-TUTOR TO CONSIDER EXPANSION. THANK YOU. MR. DUNN, THAT WAS YOUR TIME. WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO PUT YOU WANT TO GO BACK? ARE YOU SURE? I DIDN'T.

[03:34:58] YEAH. I WOULD LIKE TO PLEASE. THANK YOU. MISS DIXETT. THANK YOU, DR. REED, FOR THE PRESENTATION. had the pleasure of obviously seeing this firsthand and engagement with the students and the staff it is it's a you can see a lot that in elementary school obviously because students are very close to teachers and administrators and middle school you know but then high school and obviously the teenagers so they're in their own world but there's still a lot of bonding and and and a lot

[03:35:37] of love and happiness so when I go to schools and I think it's for all my colleagues that we see happy kids and we see engaged kids that just changes that's something we can't put any numbers on this there's this report is one of the reports we are not going to ask you for numbers because this is one of the reports where we are seeing the relationships and how things are you know getting every day it's done and FCPS one feedback I wanted to just address give is a program which is in some of our schools elementary middle school high

[03:36:14] school and there's a really good stuff how kids are learning especially college readiness and and it's helping the students to plan better and I think comes from the executive functioning side as well but then they go to some middle school and they don't have the David program and then they go to some high school and they pick it back up so I think the two years may there's a missing link where they may be picking up that habit before but now they're not having I believe I was in Brookhill Elementary and I think is the feeder is Franklin and then they go to Chantilly so there was a

[03:36:50] missing link I believe there the and of course today as my colleague just said about the medical the the Purple Heart School, we have more and more number of Purple Heart schools now in our in our FCPS school system.

[03:37:05] So that shows the level of commitment we have for our military connected families and and this is a rapid increase. We are it just shows that these are the kind of things we are doing for our families, our community.

[03:37:21] Very difficult to put a number on that on our ROI on it. Thank you so much. Thanks, Miss Dixit.

[03:37:30] Miss St. John Cunningham. I'm sorry. I was just switching where I was at. But first of all, I do really want to thank you for all the work you've done in terms of making our families and our students feel included. I think the most powerful thing a leader can do is lead by example. And you do that every day. I don't think that I've ever seen a superintendent be so present in our community and in our schools. And also kudos to your leadership team because I know

[03:38:11] lot of children or people in schools or parents know members of your leadership team which I don't think people knew that before so I think they follow your example which you know goes on down the line to teachers in terms of inclusion and the universal you know UDL I think that's really important and I know we focus on training teachers and I which is important because they're the ones set deal with the students but working as somebody like myself that was a family liaison

[03:38:46] and also seeing other people that are not actually touching children directly in terms of the classroom but do have to interact with them. I would like to see some training for some of those people because I think sometimes when a student walks into the front office or runs into somebody and they have someone that doesn't understand what the mission is and what the -- we just want everyone on the same page and I've seen some discrepancy in that just in terms of what my experience has been in my 26 years of working in schools is like the teachers know what to do but that front office staff person may not know what to do or that family liaison may not know what to do and they're still working with with

[03:39:25] teachers I think like a great example that I knew of a person that was very nasty when students would come in late you know like what's wrong why weren't you here whatever and the kids were scared the parents were scared and then I was at another school where it was like I We're so glad you got here today. I'm sorry you're late.

[03:39:45] You know, what a difference that sets up for that child and even for those parents. The other thing is talking about tutors, what I wanted to talk about is there is that free tutoring, the varsity tutoring program.

[03:40:01] How do we publicize that? I know that newsletters, teacher newsletters, Schoology, I think, publicizes that. not entirely sure but i schoology do we have some kind of link to that dr presidio dr ponce i don't believe varsity tutors is built into schoology but we did a very robust communication campaign about it when we first brought that program online and continued to schools continue to push that information out in the newsletters as dr reed said i can tell you as a parent i get that information

[03:40:39] in my school's newsletters so that's the primary way that we've done it is there a reason we couldn't put it in Schoology I mean since that's where the kids are and yeah something we can take a look at do we have it I'd like to know if we have any data of you know how many students are are using it or families I mean I'm very familiar with some families that used it and loved it because they ended up having the same tutor and writing a relationship with that and I remember the president's free right do we have data on on that we do I don't know that off the top of my head, but we can pull some of it up. Actually, Ms. Neal's referencing

[03:41:18] a report where we've actually got some of it, so she could probably give it to us right now. Ms. Neal? Yes. So we do have information in the full report on page seven with some of the usage data, which includes the chat engagements with the tutors, the essay editing requests, video sessions, so there's a full breakdown on page seven of the report. Yeah, I think that would be a good thing for us to have because if we're losing some of our high-impact tutors and we have this option if we can start directing parents to that it may not be

[03:41:47] the best option but um I was very happy to see the shout out on this report too I'll have I'll do a go back. Ms. Marin. Yes thank you for the report Dr. Reed um I did not find compliance with two key areas I'd like to talk about uh the first one is item number two implementing policies and procedures that promote a safe welcoming included inclusive accessible and equitable learning environment for all students that promotes respects belonging and

[03:42:24] well-being I'd like to start off with something a public commenter said tonight which is that this school year calendar has been erratic and that it wasn't brought to the board's attention that it would be erratic is a real failure it's I asked for information about this and was given to it by council in a in a memo which I don't understand why it can't be public information but it seems that from what I understand from this memo that the board's adoption of student holidays back in 23 when you very smartly proposed a three-year calendar is what drives the school year calendar and then the staff calendar is developed in accordance with

[03:43:00] regulation 4421 but so then how was the school year calendar for next year and the two years already after that being developed under under what authority if it's that the board sets the student holidays well you know at some point I'm trusting you to say you know what this calendar does not prioritize consistent education of kids and in 2023 we voiced that having a five day a week school week was the priority and so the fact that we have had one full week of school this year

[03:43:36] that does not meet having a calendar of well-being and and you should have have told us do we need to approve it what what it is what is it I mentioned this yesterday outdoor classroom use rollout seems inequitable the world language instruction there's just these things that I don't see as doing that promote inclusivity accessibility it's still that system of schools I number three the protection against discrimination so this is again that chicken and egg thing

[03:44:13] I feel like we're constantly in although I don't ever feel like we advance which is there has to be some urgency and mutual accountability the SRNR that we know and love is a regulation and that is under your purview the policy for the SNR is this it is two paragraphs and the earliest it was last reviewed would be 2011 that's the year after my 15 year old was born so the lack of urgency and the board did send this to our Governance Committee but as a part-time board without the legal staff and the research staff it's incumbent on you to

[03:44:51] make sure that we are doing our work together and we shouldn't have these policies that are decades old we need your help I also think the policy is where we could put things like protecting against discrimination and use of social media appropriately in our schools this policy does not give us the teeth that we're hearing our community say they need from us you've done a lot of great things but these are these are things I cannot overlook thank you miss Marin I'm gonna go ahead and take a turn what I focused on here is actually

[03:45:26] in connection to what we heard the other night with the AI event because what I kind of globbed on to just a little bit is the portrait of a graduate and what I love about what we're actually finding out is that it may be that the skills that are in portrait of a graduate are actually the most effective skills that our kids are going to learn they're also we're still going down the path though that it's hard to figure out how we're going to quantify grades and things like that related to them. So I just want to put a plug in that that I would love to see a stronger connection particularly when we're talking about AI like talking

[03:46:05] about those skills that are our portrait. I think it's actually a great combination that could easily be put in a lot of our of our work that would actually help elevate a little bit of what the portrait of a graduate is doing because the skill set that you need for to be successful in the world is is actually exactly the skill set that we have said for many years.

[03:46:24] And so I think that this is an awesome opportunity for us to make that connection strong, particularly as we move towards figuring out how we're going to integrate AI opportunities for our kids. And so I just wanted to speak to that as one thing that is a path where we could head.

[03:46:43] So I am going to go to Mr. McElveen. - So I think one thing that hasn't, explicitly mentioned and maybe not fully appropriate to mention but you have shown great leadership in protecting our students and you know I don't see many other leaders across the nation doing that so I want to thank you sincerely for that and continue to stand strong on that I do want to echo my colleague Miss

[03:47:21] Marin on the calendar issue so I think one of my big concerns over this past year is that in 2023-24 you know we tacitly agreed to the early release days and then that continued for another has continued for another year without our input I you know I'm the community is very concerned about the early release Wednesdays I do think there were paths where we could have made it less

[03:48:01] imposing on families having an early release Fridays or something like that but I don't I don't think this community can handle one more one more year of the early release days if the calendar is going to remain Swiss cheese and so that I think that's probably the easiest place to make progress there and I will again just raise the question that I raised probably about a month or six weeks ago which is when are we going to have an opportunity to discuss the

[03:48:35] calendar in a public setting thank you yeah I that would be something would that would need to be scheduled thank you mr. McLevine mr. Dunn for a go back Early release Wednesdays I surveyed school leaders and they characterized it in very harsh terms as a horrible use of time verbatim quote and similar terminology because it is an administrative burden, heavy administrative burden with almost no instructional work, no effective professional development is delivered because they have to spend entire days, entire days is their quote,

[03:49:13] their words not mine because of all the child care arrangements and parents are constantly changing their mind in their child care arrangements so i extremely urge you to reconsider any continuation of early release wednesdays because the principals who we rely on to deliver a world-class education do not support it at least in my part of the county i want to ask you about the fact that we're having backwards sliding or backsliding on the effective delivery of universal access equal access to advanced academics in every elementary school what i've seen with last year with the

[03:49:50] budget cuts to aerts we're seeing some local aap also called local level four programs deteriorate in quality and and and so i don't know if you're seeing that but i'm definitely seeing that in my conversations with principals in my part of the county that where we used to have progress towards students everywhere having equal access to advanced academics or at least early stage implementation there's now been some some fallback due to the budget cuts so can you speak to whether you know

[03:50:23] consistent with the 2020 aap report you're still committed to having um you know local aap available equally with the advanced academics programming that's available in AAP centers for elementary schools? My understanding is that it should be just as available this year as it was last year and she'll continue to be just as available.

[03:50:43] Okay. Well, if I can ask you to maybe work with your team to just investigate that working with our RASs, I would appreciate that because that is something that's of tremendous concern to me going forward.

[03:50:59] I just want to echo the comments about the calendar based on the information that's been provided to us. I don't know if the current calendar and for future years is in order or was properly authorized. So I'd like to have that examined in consultation.

[03:51:16] Thank you. Ms. St. John, for a go back. Thank you. This really isn't a question. I mean, I could have you read it, but I just was really proud to see the work being done at the John R. Lewis Leadership Program and the fact that more than 450 students including almost every rising 9th grade student from Key Middle School provided input in decisions and curriculum creation.

[03:51:45] This program is amazing and it really is student led and a lot of what's happening there are the ideas that the students are saying this is important and it takes into consideration every student and there are programs that are being developed by students with disabilities and multilingual learners and they are all proportionately represented in the community and it's just something phenomenal just couldn't let that go by obviously because I'm very proud of the work that's going on in that school and I just wanted to do a shout out

[03:52:22] that a school that a lot of people sometimes malign is doing incredible work and it's the students that are leading it and when you see what they do you're like wow it's you're just really wowed by it so i just had to look that up and thank you for allowing that to happen and encouraging the teachers there the programming there um and just supporting that programming thank you mr fresh for an initial go around i wanted to talk about the calendar um the policy

[03:53:02] is very general and the calendar is part of the superintendent's authority that the board gives her or them depending on who the superintendent is um and so when we back in the day when we voted on the calendar for some some inexplicable reason spending meeting after meeting after meeting doing it with like 35 options floating around and uh options being brought to the dais the the night of the meeting to replace an option that wasn't popular um or was less unpopular than the other

[03:53:39] one. I voted against the last calendar that we voted on, which I think we revisited three times in three different meetings because it didn't have enough five-day weeks. Even without the five-day weeks where I wanted them to be, I think the other option was like three more five-day weeks or four more five-day weeks, having a clear understanding of what years out are is far preferable. That doesn't mean we can't have both, right? What I would like to see happen, I don't think the board

[03:54:14] should be voting on the calendar but what I do think should happen is if we know that there are two out your calendars that are being made available to the public every single year I would like us to survey for the out years what the priorities are priorities are etc have a work session have the board inform that conversation along with survey data whatever and this that can help drive the superintendent's choices on how the calendar looks and then part Part of the EL process can be whether that is resulting in a calendar that people are more happy with.

[03:54:51] I will tell you right now, the complaints are never going to go away. Before we had more holidays for operational efficiencies and religious equity, we had plenty of complaints.

[03:55:07] After we've had plenty more, I still think we should have more five-day weeks. But the problem is, as we will find out when this can of worms is reopened, every change begets other problems.

[03:55:24] So you know, early release Wednesday, let's take it up with the educators who really need that planning time. Everything has a flip side. Thank you, Mr. Frisch.

[03:55:39] Ms. Eisemarheiser for a go back. I am so happy to follow that because that was going to be the gist of my comments too. Like I think be careful what we wish for the calendar because in the previous board, it took up so much of our time. And when one constituent wanted one thing, there was another constituent wanted the exact opposite thing.

[03:55:58] And it is true what Mr. Frisch, my colleague, shared, Madam Chair, that we had at the last minute a calendar coming in, I think within 24 hours of the vote, that was a surprise. And it was very contentious and very difficult because there is no perfect calendar with all the competing interests.

[03:56:14] We tried uncoupling spring break from Easter, and that created huge staffing issues. tried floating the idea of less than a two-week winter break and nobody wanted that so the reality is that the question that came up in the years that we grappled with this calendar so much is is it actually and I don't think we found anywhere that the board's decision to vote on the calendar the code if I recall Virginia code says the board sets the first day of school but it doesn't say the board votes on the entire calendar so I would very highly recommend what my colleague madam chair has recommended which is however the

[03:56:51] the superintendent wants to gain community input with a survey or whatever the drafts or calendar brings it to us i remember very distinctly the vote mr frisch is talking about because i voted in the other direction because i wanted to give this board a three-year calendar it was 2023 and i knew you know there was a lot of new people coming in and i wanted to make sure you all didn't have to have the same contentiousness year after year and so even though i did not think it was the best calendar i was trying to get and i heard a lot from the community as well even more than the board that they wanted just to know what's going to happen this year what's going to happen next year and sometimes the calendar was so contentious we didn't vote on it till april or may and people

[03:57:29] didn't know and i that wasn't that was the one consistent thing i heard from the community is just let us know what's happening so we can plan so i switched my vote to get a three-year calendar so people could plan and to buy this board a little bit of time to kind of dig into the work i would highly recommend it remain an operational decision with a work session to inform the board and the board to inform dr reed miss lady for go back since we're talking about calendar um you know i do agree i think that it should remain an operational decision with some with some work

[03:58:07] sessions but i will say this um you know i think that i i i want to believe educators know best i parents know best but educators know best interrupted learning is not good and interrupting the momentum is not good and while i you know was working in the system and watched all of this going down in terms of the the length and the discussions. I feel like and I will definitely hear from my colleagues if I misrepresent this, but I feel like the majority of us

[03:58:45] were just so like defeated when those calendars came out because we no longer had a summer break. Those of us that those folks that were not or teachers or counselors, I mean the the idea of have a 11-month contract was you had a July off. With so many days and so many PD days for operations, there's no time to recharge. And while I understand religious equity, and I will say the one year, yes, you did move spring break away from the Easter week, you didn't do that in

[03:59:21] collection and collaboration with your surrounding jurisdictions where our teachers live. I believe there's an appetite perhaps to bring that because i think they're getting i think our surrounding jurisdictions are getting some of the same complaints around interrupted learning so i think we need to have a work session i think we need to talk about it um i think it is operational i have had people who are of certain religious practices tell me that they have religious days off that they disagree with that they they want their kids in school um so i think

[03:59:53] that it's it was a it was a you know a tightrope walk i think when it was when when we were um when it was you know certainly in discussion before with the board it needs to be revisited i'm all for five day weeks thank you miss lady seeing no others we're going to go ahead and call for a vote on the motion which is on the screen all those in favor mr frisch miss marron mr mckelveen

[04:00:26] Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Ms. Sizemarheiser, Mr. Moon, and myself, all those opposed. Dr. Anderson, all those abstaining. Mr. Dunn. Will the clerk please read the vote?

[04:00:42] Vote is 9-1-1. The motion carries. Thank you. Annually the board will review each executive limitation at the time that of the monitoring report is provided to determine if revisions are needed. Board members may offer amendments to executive limitations at any regular meeting, provided that they send the final amendment language to the board and the clerk at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting at at which it is to be considered at this time no amendments have been submitted in advance of this meeting executive limitation 10 learning environment and relationships

[04:01:18] with students was placed on the consent agenda for approval later in tonight's meeting to maintain the current language for the year ahead agenda item 9.01 academic matters i call on dr reed for academic matters thank you madam chair tonight's academic matters is going to focus on the division work around universal design for learning and the inclusive practices that were part of executive limitation 10 this work is also in alignment with goal 2 of our strategic plan where our equity commitment is to honor students identities and experiences and ensure

[04:01:57] student safety and well-being in an inclusive climate and culture so when we think about the next slide and our commitment to increasing inclusive opportunities on the next thank you we continue to be committed to this and we know that inclusion benefits all students research has consistently shown the benefits of inclusion and the expectation right now is that all students are educated in the least restrictive environment and that placement decisions always will remain an IEP team decision one of the things

[04:02:36] that's important to note about our Universal Design for Learning work is to recognize that the special services are really a continuum they're not a place and we need to be thoughtful about how we provide those services on a vast continuum as our students require those needs so what exactly do we talk about when we mean universal or what do we mean when we talk about universal design for learning and it is an approach to optimizing and improving teaching and

[04:03:11] learning really for all students one of the things we really strive to do is focus on minimizing barriers to learning that exist in the environment or most especially within the design of the learning experience it also empowers educators to design instruction that provides students with greater access and greater agency in their learning strategies are provided to support educators with designing more flexible methods materials and environments to embrace each learners unique needs so we've also provided a variety of professional development activities and our curriculum teams continue to build

[04:03:51] in explicit strategies within content areas we believe that inclusive education is about creating schools where every student belongs and really belongs in a real and authentic way and has access to meaningful learning it's not a replacement excuse me it's not a replacement for special education but rather a provision of services on a continuum as students continue to access their services and instruction it's not about removing support but it's about providing support

[04:04:28] in more effective and increasingly inclusive ways this is a huge endeavor across fcps because we've really recognized that this is a an area of our work that has required some attention for some time our 12 phase 1 schools which we've begun started their planning last spring and have begun implementation this school year within each phase our schools are going through a process of planning professional development and there's really a multi-year implementation phase with

[04:05:05] ongoing monitoring and support 12 schools that are in phase one represent all regions levels and demographics including title one aap centers and a variety of special education program sites Additionally, we have 81 schools that are currently planning and engaging in professional development so that they'll begin implementation of new inclusion practices in the coming year.

[04:05:31] Each school has been carefully selected for each phase to ensure that as students transition to the next level, their schools will already be in the implementation phase to ensure a continuity of services once students have started.

[04:05:47] remaining schools have started to engage in professional development and will continue with their preparation to begin school-wide implementation in 27 28 throughout this process central office and school-based inclusion teams have been consulting with inclusion experts in the field in this case dr. Julie Koston and dr. Christie pretty front sick and dr. Shelley Moore have been consulting with our teams develop plans and provide high-quality professional development we've also been providing instructional staff including teachers instructional assistants and instructional leaders the same

[04:06:24] professional development to support the implementation and I'll share that our phase one schools are Bush Hill Elementary Dogwood Elementary Franklin Sherman Greenbrier East Hunt Valley Saratoga all elementary schools as well as Herndon High Edison High South County Middle Marshall High Rocky Run middle and hayfield secondary the middle school side so we've seen some early successes in our phase one schools they're seeing interestingly it's come up in this report as well as in the monitoring report that schools are seeing a decrease in discipline referrals particularly a decrease in

[04:07:04] discipline referrals among students with IEPs what they're also seeing increases in the LRE percentages general education teachers are reporting higher levels of engagement self-efficacy increases in performance in a higher sense of belonging from students the instructional shifts that are happening are actually improving tier one instruction and I think one of the things that's most promising is that our very youngest learners are very much so a part of this opportunity schools also are continuing to increase opportunities for our twice exceptional students through opportunities like co-taught AP

[04:07:41] and IB level courses which are new for our division. We're very excited to see these shifts and as years go on I think we'll see we've moved into our pilot pilot proof of concept and then we're going to be bringing this to scale just as we have a number of other topics in our strategic plan. So that is academic matters Chair Anderson. Thank you Dr. Reed. We're going to kick things off with Ms. Seizmerheiser. Thank you and you don't know what it means to me to see this presentation

[04:08:14] after probably 20 years of begging for this and I mean I don't use that word lightly right um and I could have told you discipline would go down right I could have told you academic outcomes I mean the data can tell you right and so I'm thrilled to see this it is long overdue I can just tell you from my personal experience having a son who kept being excluded in Fairfax County but included in private music and dance studios I was able to see the impact of those parallel lives on his education which is why I've been such a fighter

[04:08:51] for inclusion not just for him but for other students so I could talk about this forever I'll probably take a go back but I did want to ask you one quick question I'm very blunt here because of how we've done inclusion we haven't Indicator 5 by the state level for as long as the 20 years I've been advocating for this, we have convinced many of our parents and families that inclusion can potentially lead to more bullying, that inclusion isn't the best place for them to get education. I can just tell

[04:09:25] you from meetings, from advocates, what are we doing to help now change that mindset amongst our families because we have created that mindset to begin with. That is a good question, more heiser I think that as more families experience the positive benefits of inclusion I think that the narrative will shift I believe that our I believe that our children our students model the kindness compassion the also one of the

[04:10:03] things that I shared and I'm talking about kindness and compassion on all fronts for all of our students are typically developing and neurodivergent students one of the things that I think our new sort of foray into AI is going to yield is a deeper appreciation for the many and varied gifts our children bring to educational spaces and I think one of the things that we're underestimating is the leveling of the playing field for all children when we're looking at absolute importance of creativity and critical thinking and

[04:10:42] and an ability to see things in different ways that will be so necessary as we prepare for this future, yet to be imagined in many quarters. And I firmly believe that when we talk about achievement gaps in the ways we have in the last 20 to 25 years, we're talking about gaps fundamentally in skills that are waning when the strengths, If we talk about our strengths possibilities instead of achievement gaps, we would see

[04:11:18] children who bring tremendous strengths to learning spaces and our strengths that we're going to, I think, learn perhaps to measure because many of those strengths we don't have a way to measure and therefore we don't, you know, accord them the same respect.

[04:11:37] strengths are the same value and I think that's to our detriment as a nation so I think the more we contemplate how the gifts of our children are critical even if we haven't figured out how to measure them and maybe because we can't measure them they need to be developed at an even deeper level so I I say that which is way off your question topic but it's just such a deeply held belief that I I think of Temple Grandin and the work she's done

[04:12:16] and all the shifts in our country because of the work she has done and then wonder where she would have been in an achievement gap conversation if we were talking about that and I think when we persist in that conversation sometimes we miss the more important part of it which is the creative problem-solving that we're so desperately in need of right now and I appreciate that and I agree with all that like I said I could talk about this for hours but I do think we need to understand kind of the Stockholm syndrome we've done to our

[04:12:53] parents and specifically address those concerns right like we really really need to whether it's through the Family Resource Center or whatever to explain the data shows bullying goes down here's what we're doing I mean we need to address those concerns we've created it and we don't want our families to be a barrier to inclusion because the data shows it leads to better outcomes the other thing I would ask about is the mindset I think too often what I've seen in schools is an overprotective mindset that actually leads to terrible long-term outcomes the statement that I used to make to my son's teachers like are you

[04:13:33] going to follow them around for the rest of your life because if you're not please don't follow them around in first grade and I think people are so well intentioned and want to protect but that protection comes at a cost and when you're in an inclusive environment it's harder to protect but I think inclusion at its core will not succeed in Fairfax County if we cannot address those two things we cannot bring our families along and undo the damage that Fairfax County has done and if we cannot change that mindset of overprotection it won't succeed because if we're

[04:14:10] going to include kids we have to start with the premise that they can be included like everybody else and scaffold from there and not start with the premise that i have to follow you around everywhere and if you happen to be able to do something on your own i'll let you try and that's too often what i see in our classrooms and it's all well-intentioned but that those two things have to be addressed having said that i'm thrilled so please understand i'm very thrilled with this i just this is such a big mindset we can't lose those two pieces i'm thrilled with the data around it um i'm thrilled that hunt valley is part of that because it was not that way 20 years ago so

[04:14:49] um and i'll take a go back to talk more specifically about this work but i just want to lift that up we have to address the mindset issues yes ma'am i just want to take a quick turn here um i appreciate so much the experts that you brought in because what it's allowed me to do is learn alongside all of our community and staff and so I've really appreciated just the process that we've gone through related to UDL and I'm extremely excited to go see it and live and in person in a few weeks so I just wanted wanted to speak to and say thank you for the work I know it's taken

[04:15:27] a long time for us to get to where we wanted to be I think across the board But I am very appreciative of the path that we've taken to get here. So and with that, I'm going to send it back to Ms. Sizemore Heiser for a go back. All right, so I'm going to now say the positive.

[04:15:44] This is incredible. This is incredible work. And I want it for those who are still listening at 11 o'clock at night, say why it's incredible work. Not just that all the data and the science that shows that better long term outcomes academically and socially for those with and without disabilities when they're in inclusive settings.

[04:16:01] That's clear. But when you think about the current status of people with disabilities, once they leave our school, 80%, 70% to 80% unemployment rate for people with autism, right? That unemployment rate isn't often because of a lack of skills.

[04:16:20] It's because both the people with autism have been segregated throughout school, so they have not had the chance to learn as other students do slowly, a little higher expectations each year, right? We have a higher behavioral and social expectations of first graders and kindergarteners and second graders and so on.

[04:16:37] You can't take somebody who's been segregated away from that and then throw them in at 18 and say, good luck. You just can't. Everyone would fail, right? And similarly, those students' future co-workers and employers and employees, public safety professionals, are in the other classes for the most part.

[04:16:57] Maybe not all, but some. And if they've never slowly over the years learned to accept people with disabilities as part of the norm of their community, which is the classroom for a lot of the day, how are we going to expect them at 18 to understand how somebody might communicate differently or present differently?

[04:17:15] And so what we're doing by not being inclusive is leading to a 70 to 80 percent unemployment rate. So this work that we're doing here isn't just so we have better test scores and better discipline. although that's amazing, it's so that people have a chance to live a life that they deserve.

[04:17:33] That's what inclusion does. And so the fact that we are doing this work, that we're taking it in a couple years to every school, kudos to you, Dr. Reed. This is when we were interviewing for your position. This is what I was hoping you would be able to do here. So thank you.

[04:17:50] Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Reed. I do want to thank the team because this has been a lot of work in our principals and special ed chairs and psychologists and educators. This is a big lift, but people believe it's the right thing to do.

[04:18:08] So I want to commend our team. I agree. Agenda item 10, consent agenda. Our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure. Roberts rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion.

[04:18:28] Many items listed have gone through board review, and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance. Items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the meeting. The consent agenda items are on the screen. Is there any objection to approving the consent agenda?

[04:18:45] Hearing and seeing no objection, the consent agenda is approved. Agenda item 11, new business. The following are new business agenda items. There will not be a vote on these items this evening, but action is scheduled for a future meeting. Agenda item 12, board committee reports.

[04:19:01] We do not have any committee updates for tonight. Agenda item 13, superintendent matters. I call on Dr. Reed for superintendent matters. - Thank you, Madam Chair. I only have one item and that is to provide a heartfelt thanks to our community for your support of our bond election.

[04:19:22] I think that Fairfax County Public Schools is a special place and it's a special place because of our community support. So just a big thank you to our community for supporting our bond referendum. And a big thank you to Len Forkus and our committee that did a lot of the work to support this.

[04:19:40] Thank you agenda item 14 board matters we're going to go ahead and skip this item for this evening due to time and what we need to go back to close to do agenda item 15 the board will now return to close this meeting is recessed at 1130 p.m.

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